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THE 

TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS 



Gbe Soul 

ITS POWERS, MIGRATIONS, AND TRANSMIGRATIONS 



FOURTH EDITION 

Revised and Enlarged 



/ 

By F. B. DO WD 

Rogers, Arkansas 



" For these things that appear delight us, but make the things 
that appear not, hard to believe ; or the things that appear not are 
hard to believe," - - Hera:es. 



1901 

EULIAN PUBLISHING CO. 

SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cores Received 

AUG. 15 1901 

Copyright entry 

1CLASS Ct^XXc. No. 

COPY B. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1901, by 

EULIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY, Salem Mass., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 

Entered at Stationer's Hall, London. 

All rights reserved. 



C • C * « " € 
■ •• • - 



Stanbope press 

F. H. GILSON COMPANY 
BOSTON, U.S.A. 



H»e&fcatfom 

TO 

JOHN HEANEY, 

OF BUCKLEY, IROQUOIS COUNTY, ILLINOIS, 

HIM OF THE GREAT SOUL, LOFTY MIND, AND LOVING HEART, 

" DOOR OF THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS," 

ARE THESE PAGES MOST RESPECTFULLY AND LOVINGLY 

DEDICATED, BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



To provoke thought, and thus lift the world out 
of the rut into which it has fallen, the following 
pages have been written. The soul is no common 
or vulgar thing ; and all approximation thereto, in 
thought, must be transcendental. This work claims 
to contain the fundamental principles of all religions 
— the philosophy of manhood, and the road lead- 
ing to a true life and immortality, here, on this 
poor, much abused earth. " This is a matter-of-fact 
age," and "the day of miracles has passed." That 
is, those things which unaccountably happen, which 
were formerly ascribed to God, have come a little 
nearer home, and are now ascribed to nature. What 
satisfaction there is in a name, especially to children ! 
The superstition of the past, and of the stars, nar- 
rowed down to that of "the ape " and "the mud ! " 
Instead of the facts of observation, I have attempted 
those of logic and common sense. Darwin and 
Huxley have narrowed the mind down to a contem- 
plation of the mud ("protoplasm "), but I call you to 
a contemplation of man and his possibilities. / came, 
and found this beautiful earth fanned by the breath 
of deadly poison, which men, in the very agony of 
breathing, call life. / go ; but in going, I would 

5 



PREFACE. 



leave it a little purer for having been here. I am 
satisfied that man is the architect of himself, and of 
all conditions, from "protoplasm " up; and it has 
been my effort to stir him upward to the creation of 
things worthy of himself. This year, 1881, is the 
close of an epoch in the world's history. It will, 
indeed, be sad, if we follow in the bloody track of 
our forefathers downward. We have now an oppor- 
tunity, next year, of cutting loose the shackles that 
chain us to the corpse of the past. Let us make 
the attempt. 

It is not claimed that this work is wholly Rosi- 
crucian. The sublime principles of this fraternity 
are not conveyed in this manner ; but enough is 
given to enable the thoughtful and earnest searcher 
after truth to get a glimpse of the glory hidden, even 
now, as in the past. It is not the loud sounding bells 
of a sabbath morning, nor the roaring of organs and 
voices ; neither is the high-toned oratory of the offici- 
ating priest, true worship ; neither is it the rneans, 
however charming and gratifying, which move the 
infinite to the answering of prayer. Remember, 
"silence is strength;" noises confuses. It is "an 
empty sound," which silence comprehends not, or in 
the comprehension of it, loses it. The unwavering, 
persistent, incomprehensible (by us) thought, is the 
sustaining and noiseless moving power of the uni- 
verse ; and he who hath most of it is the most prayer- 
answering God, and in and by virtue thereof he is 
the greatest prayer. f. b. dowd. 



PREFACE TO ENLARGED EDITION. 



No preface to this edition is necessary further 
than to say that the book since its first publication 
in 1882, having gone through three editions, and 
being now out of print and still sought after, is con- 
sidered worthy of an enlarged and revised edition. 

To this end many changes have been made ; not, 
however, in ideas, but in expression and in elaboration. 
By the addition of two entirely new chapters, one on 
heredity and one on the psychic senses, it is 
hoped that the value of the work will be further en- 
hanced. 

F. B. DOWD. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGB 

Introduction. — The Supernatural n 

CHAPTER I. 
Principles of Nature 27 

CHAPTER II. 
Nature and Life 34 

CHAPTER III. 
The Unnatural - . . 40 

CHAPTER IV. 
Heredity vs. Progress 48 

CHAPTER V. 
Body and Spirit 55 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Mind 67 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Quaternary Mind 82 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Generation of Mind 96 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Irrational Mind 107 

9 



IO CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER X. 



Belief and Hope i 



12 



CHAPTER XI. 
The Psychic Senses 122 

CHAPTER XII. 
Belief and Knowledge 132 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Faith and Knowledge 140 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Soul 159 

CHAPTER XV. 
Migration and Transmigration 177 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Will 201 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Voluntary and Involuntary Powers ... 224 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Will-Culture 232 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Soul-Powers and Spiritual Gifts 267 

CHAPTER XX. 
Spirituality 291 

CHAPTER XXI. 

ROSICRUCLE f , . 304 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE SUPERNATURAL. 

In this matter-of-fact age the existence of God is 
seriously questioned by the greatest thinkers. The 
reason is obviously in the definitions which the re- 
ligious world — more especially the Christian — gives 
to the term. The very nature of reason precludes 
the idea of the existence of a Thing above, separate 
and apart from the relationship of things. Reason 
cannot transcend its own source. That which is 
seen and known as nature — it being an infinitude 
of objects and phenomena — is considered as suffi- 
cient. And to reason and observation it does seem 
so. But if we undertake an analysis of this thing 
we call nature, we shall find it fully as remarkable 
and as contradictory as to suppose a Supreme Being 
as its maker. 

The antipathies of things show no one source. 
There seems, even to broad and deep reason, two 
principles at war with each other ; equally so to the 
fool they appear. One cannot be the cause of the 
other — nor can they be self-adjusting and regulating. 
Why? Because to us — not even to our reason — 

ii 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

is no thing self-existent or self-supporting. Every- 
thing in existence is dependent upon something 
else. 

If there is an exception to this, it cannot be a 
Form. If we pass by things in our thought, and 
descend to principles, they also are dual and antago- 
nistic. 

To suppose Good to be the principle, and evil its 
mere effect, is an absurdity, for one is as real as the 
other ; and the evil is as much the cause of good as 
good is the cause of evil. 

We are so constituted that definitions are a neces- 
sity of all growth, intellectual as well as physical. 
All nature is an effort to define itself. But what is 
it that is defining itself in this warfare of elements — 
this clashing of interests ? Is it not something hidden 
away alike from feeling or observation and reason, a 
something underlying both soul and mind, of which 
we can form no conception ? 

Who can define the principle in himself which 
feels, thinks and reasons ? It is known as the Ego, 
the self, or the I. And even Jehovah defined Him- 
self as "I am that I am," and how can I speak of 
myself otherwise than to declare that I am ? 

I cannot ascend above nor descend below, neither 
can I circumscribe myself ; I meet myself at every 
turn. If I essay a definition of God, it is my own 
thought merely, and if I read it in a book, it is 
merely the thought of some other mind similar to 
my own. 



INTRODUCTION. 1 3 

The nature of man is to think, but no man can 
think outside of himself or beyond his nature. 

To comprehend is to enclose as in a circle ; and 
when we have gone around ourselves and analyzed 
our entire being, pray, what do we know ? We know 
this. From the pain and pleasure of living we know 
of two great principles at war with each other in our- 
selves ; and we agree to call one Good and the other 
Evil. 

Now we have these two principles through the 
exercise of a power that underlies thought or mind, a 
principle that exists prior to thought, viz. — sense. 

Sense is the principle of all animate being, nay 
more, it is the principle of all being and of all becom- 
ing. Out of sense, as out of the womb, comes the 
power to think, viz., the mind ; which does not feel, 
but which estimates or judges of what affects the 
man. Sense is the soul and the oversoul of things. It 
is common to the worm, insect and to man. Bound- 
less space pulsates with sense, in which worlds float 
like dust in a sunbeam. Sense is supernatural. 

That which is made a thing when limited by forms 
and conditions, constitutes the soul of things, sparks 
of an inconceivable fire whose light is mind, physi- 
cally manifesting in stars, suns and worlds, holes in 
the blue vault of heaven through which the super- 
natural looks down at us. 

What is that spark which flashes from a telegraph 
instrument in the transmission of intelligence from 
place to place ? It is light and of the same nature 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

as thought. It flashes through space regardless of 
time, loaded with intelligence, life, light and heat ; 
which warms the blood and inspires the mind. 

The oceans of space are filled with sense, of which 
we become sensible by its impinging upon reservoirs 
within, which we term hearing, seeing, feeling, smell- 
ing and tasting, — the five senses or keys of this 
human telegraph instrument. And he who operates 
the machine, sends and receives telegrams and judges 
of their nature and keeps the instrument in order, is 
the Ego, man, who thinks, feels and knows; he 
who judges nature and essays to improve upon her 
methods. 

The very perception of imperfection in any of 
nature's works fixes the mark of superiority upon the 
one who so perceives or thinks. The idea of improv- 
ing anything carries with it the power to do so, even 
the power to improve the selfhood, which is the think- 
ing principle itself. 

Man knows a little : but the all knowing, all think- 
ing, all seeing power we call God, man can only ap- 
prehend by the senses which are supposed to be five 
in number ; but there are other senses of which we 
have never dreamed — as the unknown is beyond the 
known. 

How small and weak is the latter compared to 
the former ! How small the possible in comparison 
to the impossible ! Is the Supernatural the impos- 
sible ? Then how great and vast it must be ! It 
is natural to grow in knowledge, but the things 



INTRO D UCTION. 1 5 

unknown are infinite — they are all in our ignorance. 
How vast it is compared to our knowledge ! Is 
Ignorance the Supernatural? 

The light that flows from the sun is small com- 
pared to the limitless darkness that hovers around 
its radius. Is the darkness the Supernatural ? 

The above is greater than the below. Is it to be 
wondered at that men have universally looked up to 
God ? However vast nature may be there is some- 
thing still above it, which, although incomprehensible, 
still has an existence to every thinking mind. My 
nature is limited by my knowledge of myself and 
my relationship to others. So nature is a limited 
thing, as my mind is my limit. 

May not this nature, after all, be merely a mental 
product as is the good and evil of it ? A mental pro- 
duct ! not of one, nor even of a race, but of all minds 
in unison ! Is all nature outside of us, or is it within, 
as a wondrous mystery hidden in our ignorance. 

Is not the impossible within us, the same as is 
weakness, and ignorance, and darkness ? 

Education is nothing but the opening of a "door," 
or the lighting of a lamp in a dark place, through 
which things before unknown appear to us as the 
possible, and are very simple. 

The circumstances of our lives are all within us, as 
the possibilities of our natures, but hidden from us in 
our ignorance, till our acts flow out as a light, showing 
us merely a few things of the many still lying back 
in the infinite darkness of the unexplored beyond. 



1 6 INTRODUCTION. 

The hidden is infinite. We are hidden from our- 
selves, and know not the wondrous powers lying back 
of our smallness. 

Even we are astonished at the wondrous skill of 
this thing we call man, which is but the supernatural 
revealing itself to us ; and why reveal itself if it is 
not an invitation for us to become something more 
than we now are ? And where shall we find a pat- 
tern to guide us in this becoming, if it be not in our 
thoughts ? Is this model of excellence to be found 
in the most lovely forms of matter, or in the most 
useful, or in the most powerful or in anything which 
appeals to any of our senses as something like our- 
selves : or must it be of a nature far superior to 
thought or feeling, a something of which the imagi- 
nation has conceived as far above the possibility of 
attainment, of which the mind can form no image 
and of which nature contains no likeness ? This 
ideal conception is that which elevates one above him- 
self to the supernatural of the self, the goal of all 
becoming; and which is subjective rather than objec- 
tive, the soul rather than the body. This ideal con- 
ception is of God within the soul a subjective being 
— not separate and apart from nature, but as the 
creative principle thereof, residing in all and per- 
meating all that is. In this view the supernatural 
becomes comprehensible. It is the soul of nature 
and objects : hence God is objectified in his works. 

He who looks for God as an object to worship will 
find many on the road to power, but he who looks for 



INTRODUCTION. If 

God within himself will feel the fullness of satisfac- 
tion and power, which God gives to all who love the 
good and true. 

That which is unchangeable is supernatural and 
eternal. In nature things are mutable. Matter may 
be divided till there is nothing left of it. Analyze a 
thing, and you have nothing left of it save a little 
dross. Take a chair for example. What is it ? A 
few pieces of wood put together for use. Take it to 
pieces and the chair vanishes. Burn the wood and 
we have ashes. Melt the ashes and we have some 
other substances to which science gives names. But 
where and what is the chair ? Is it a mere name ? 
or is it a substance ? It is an effect — a result of the 
combination of pieces of wood. If it is an effect, 
where and what is the cause ? I answer, the chair 
was first an idea conceived in the mind of some man, 
and came out of the man, and was formed in matter 
for use. But the real chair is an idea, and hence it 
is as indestructible as man himself. 

The same is true of all things that man makes. 
They came out of man as the light of his intelligence 
illuminates the darkness of his ignorance, wherein 
infinity exists. 

Nature is matter, motion and space, but the sense 
of it is the supernatural. It interprets itself, as I am 
feebly trying to do. Each man must interpret for 
himself, and his interpretation will be himself merely, 
as the sense of his mind illumines the darkness 
within. 



1 8 INTROD UCTION. 

Space is a vacuum in which things exist in motion 
or in sense. It is the " over-soul/ ' and comprehends^ 
or includes all. This is the supernatural. The sense 
of a thing gives it motion, and in motion things 
gestate, as in a womb, and grow, or become material- 
ized. 

At the centre of things there are no things, nor 
is any motion there. Perfection and stagnation exist 
at the centre. The centre is a vacuum, and is the 
soul. 

All worlds wheel around centres, and centres are 
souls, and souls are Gods. In God ("The Over- 
Soul ") all things are possible — in nature, where soul 
is a centre, the impossible exists, because here is 
ignorance, darkness and weakness. 

"He who limits things by his narrow sense is a^ 
fool," says Hargrave Jennings, one of England's 
great Rosicrucians ; and I say, whoever limits the 
possible shows his weakness and want of compre- 
hension. 

We do not know what exists in nature. We know 
very little, and what little we know is a damage to 
us, save as it shows us our weakness and the power 
and infinitude of the possible. To return to ideas. 

We are as we think : ideas rule and govern all 
action and all growth. Ideas are souls — entities of 
all being — unchangeable and indestructible; they 
exist in the spirit ; the atmosphere is the spirit of the 
earth, and in it are the souls of vegetation, having 
been evolved from the earth. They hover around, 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

and when conditions are favorable, descend accord- 
ing to the law of attraction and affinity, and spring 
up in the soil as vegetation. 

It is a well known fact to the pioneers of the 
wilderness of northern Pennsylvania that on a newly- 
cleared piece of woodland when the soil is killed by 
burning, "fire-weeds M spring up almost as thick as 
the hair on an animal's back. 

There is such a thing as chemical affinity ; and the 
earth being prepared by heat or in any other manner 
makes "conditions " for new or old forms of vegeta- 
tion to come into existence. The earth's atmosphere 
is all alive with ideas — ideas of vegetables, animals 
and men — all waiting for favorable conditions to 
enable them to be born into existence. 

Ideas are infinite in number and variety, corre- 
sponding to all conditions from mineral up to man. 
They are the soul-life and volition of matter, and they 
enter into matter at every point where conditions are 
favorable. 

I hold that all forms are ideas materialized, that 
ideas are eternal, but forms are evanescent. The 
sunlight gives color to vegetation. Color is an idea, 
and, although the foundation of color may reside in 
the mineral of plants, yet we all know that the sun 
develops it. 

A child develops in utero, but who does not know 
that the soul comes through the father ? Matter is 
the mother ; spirit is the father. 

In every atom of matter is a vacuum — else there 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

would be no attraction — for matter crowds upon 
vacuum and hence takes form, and vacuum is the 
womb of matter, into which ideas are attracted when- 
ever moved by a magnetic current. 

All life and organization are dependent upon this 
current, and this is dependent upon the formation of 
a magnet, or the union of the positive and negative, 
the acid and alkali, the father and mother. As spirit 
is the father, and as ideas (souls) come from the 
Father, so does spirit baptize matter, impregnating it. 
" God is a spirit. " So the supernatural is a spirit, 
and will beget itself in matter whenever conditions 
are favorable. 

Ideas, being soul, are food for souls. Hence man 
grows in creative and original power through his 
reception of ideas. Ideas take root in the soil of 
man's mind according to its condition, exactly as 
vegetation springs up in the soil of the earth. If 
the soil be poor the vegetation will be inferior. If the 
mind be low and vulgar, the ideas attracted will be 
inferior ; but ideas of whatever grade or kind are a 
creative power. There is a spontaneity of mind as 
well as of earth. That which springs up of itself is 
generally weeds, but the most delicious fruits are pro- 
duced by effort — culture. The higher the culture, 
the nearer the approximation to the supernatural. 

Look you at the burrowing worm, and at the soar- 
ing eagle ! Step up, slowly, laboriously, from the 
lowest form, step by step, to the highest form of life 
known on this planet — man. Do you stop here ? 



INTRO D UCTION. 2 1 

And because your poor sight sees no higher form 
will you deny its existence ? Do you see intelligence 
graded from the snail to the loftiest intellect, and 
then, by your narrow sense, limit gradation of power ? 
Behold the grass of the fields ! the lilies of the valley ! 
Then look aloft, by day or by night, at the wondrous 
manifestation of an intelligent power, and blush in 
shame at your presumption. 
\. We grasp a little knowledge, a little of life, a little 
of spirit by the five senses, but the vital principles of 
science and of human action are only grasped by the 
loftiest reason. This is intuition. Are you a reason- 
able being, and yet limit God by denying him ? If 
so, your reason is of the lowest order ; it is destruc- 
tive ; it is not GoD-like and creative. Analyze matter 
in the crucible of thought — dissect all forms with the 
scalpel of reason, and then when you are done with 
your work tell me what you know. If your work has 
not inspired you with a love of the unknown mystery 
surrounding and dwelling within all things, you are an 
egotist. If you cavil at names you are a fool. Are 
you an artist ? Then take your inspirations from one 
who works eternally, and never makes a failure. Are 
you a mechanic ? Go study the suspension bridges 
the spider makes, and the comb of the honey bee, or 
the mechanism of a tree. I need not multiply words. 
Whatever you are, or whatever you aspire to be, the 
power is waiting for you — the patterns are spread 
out for your study. 

The supernatural is in all, and is subservient to 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

our wishes. But it is our work to make conditions — 
these have no limit. There is no interference — you 
can be just what you like to be ; but growth is slow. 
Why hurry ? Is not eternity for us ? It is the 
hurry and worry of life that destroy power. Trouble 
and vexation destroy health and pleasure, and these 
are all there is of value. 

All things are suggestive, for they are ideas ; they 
call us out of ourselves to revel in the infinite. Is 
there no suggestion that comes to you, kind reader, 
of the supernatural? Is there no intuitive feeling 
that speaks to you of immortal undying power ? Do 
you not, in your better moods, long to drink at the 
fountain of life, pleasure and individuality? If not, 
I am sorry for you. Ideas give fullness of life and 
pleasure — the greater the idea, the greater fullness 
and power. What idea is greater than the super- 
natural ? 

We talk glibly of the laws of nature, as if they 
were fixed and immutable ; but they are set aside by 
every habit which disgraces the race. Furthermore, 
modern times are rife with accounts of the dead 
appearing to the living, and of the living appearing 
as the dead ; of levitation and the moving of substance 
without a motive power, etc. The suspension of any 
one law of nature proves beyond all question that all 
are subject to the same power, and all may be sus- 
pended or rendered inoperative: — take for example 
the following, from the " Progressive Thinker " of 
Nov. 10, 1900. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

WONDERFUL OCCULT POWERS. 

As set forth by the Chicago American, William 
H. Mack, a young man from New York, believes that 
some day he will show that there is something wrong 
with the law of gravitation, and that the laws which 
now govern the attraction of the earth will have to 
be amended. 

At present he is a living demonstration of the fact 
that the laws of gravitation don't always work as 
they are laid down in books ; for Mr. Mack can make 
himself so heavy nobody can lift him, or he can allow 
himself to be lifted easily by a man of moderate 
strength. 

He has known of the strange power he possessed 
ever since he was a mere child. He has exhibited it 
for the benefit of the greatest specialists, but none 
of them can give an explanation of just what the 
subtle power is which he possesses. Professor Vir- 
chow, of Berlin, says it is a form of nervous energy. 
Charcot, the great French exponent of hypnotism, 
declares it is a management of invisible force, what- 
ever that may mean ; and so on. But nevertheless 
the fact remains that Mack can regulate his weight, 
and also has control over his pulse. 

He has traveled around the world showing his 
power, and in the course of his travels was in China 
in 1896, where he was not allowed to exhibit before 
the people, as he was regarded as a supernatural 
being. He did, however, give an exhibition before 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

Li Hung Chang. That shrewd diplomat said to him : 
" You ought to be very rich ; you have such a grip 
on the earth/' 

Mr. Mack is now in Chicago, and he gave an exhi- 
bition of his strange force at the American office 
yesterday, where he defied the strongest employe in 
the building to lift him from the ground if he did not 
so choose. In his exhibitions he simply places his 
finger upon the neck of the man trying to lift him, 
and he is glued to the earth. No amount of energy 
seems able to raise him, but when he does not apply 
this touch he is as easily lifted as an ordinary man. 

Mr. Mack also has the power of transmitting his 
peculiar resistance to others by simply placing his 
hand upon the neck. He has recently come from 
Harvard, where he was a source of wonder and 
amazement to the football team, which tried mass 
plays upon him without avail. He defied their united 
strength. Three or four of the biggest men on the 
team tried with might and main to lift him, but failed. 

Mack performs many wonderful feats, but perhaps 
the strangest is this : he holds a vaulting-pole in an 
upright position between the palms of his hands, and 
permits as many as can conveniently grasp the pole 
to do so, but their combined efforts are unable to 
force the pole to the ground. 

Mack first discovered his unusual power when a 
small boy. He came home from school without a 
merit card, and his father was about to punish him. 
The small boy grasped the father by the neck and 



INTRODUCTION. 2$ 



the father's hand was stayed ; he could do nothing 
with the boy, and was astonished. He tried to 
carry the boy to the house, but was unable to lift 
him from the ground. 

Dr. Marion L. Simms, the family physician, was 
called to see if he could explain the phenomenon, but 
after several experiments gave it up. Spiritualists 
thought they detected a great medium, but young 
Mack did not show any genius in this respect. 

In 1890 the strong man went to England and 
submitted to tests by experiments there ; but no good 
explanation of how he exerted his power was ob- 
tained, and Mack still wonders why he does it and 
why he is so different from other men. 

The definition of a pound, according to physicists, 
is "the pull of the earth exerted upon a small piece 
of platinum deposited in the Exchequer at London.' ' 
To Mack this means nothing, for he can make the 
earth exert a greater or less amount of " pull " upon 
him, and the unit of the measure of the force of 
gravity is of no use. 

On the scales he can vary his weight "working," 
123 pounds, but he can also tip the beam at 800 
pounds and then slowly decrease his avoirdupois to 
about 35 pounds below normal, and he cannot ex- 
plain it any more than anybody else. 

Professor Virchow, in Berlin, made a three weeks' 
study of Mack, and at the end of that time gave no 
clear explanation of the phenomena which he had 
studied. He gave it as his theory that it was some 



26 INTRODUCTION, 

form of nerve resistance ; and the consensus of the 
savants seems to be that it is something of ~that sort, 
but something they have never been able to discover 
before and are absolutely unable to account for. 

Mack becomes exhausted after a little time and 
seems in a state of almost total collapse after per- 
forming his feats, but regains his normal poise in 
about a half-hour of rest, which goes to confirm the 
theory of it being nervous power which he uses. 

For the American, Mack performed his usual feat 
of increasing and diminishing his weight. He was 
not feeling in the best of health, and said his " work " 
affected him more than usual. He proved himself to 
be absolute master of his weight, and could weigh 
about what he wished when anybody tried to lift 
him. One, two, three and four men made trials, but 
could not move him from his feet. He could be 
wrestled from his feet easily or toppled over and then 
lifted ; but when he placed his finger on the neck of 
one of the men, and they all touched flesh somewhere 
along the line, his resistance baffled all their efforts. 

v There seemed to several reporters who tried the 
experiment and watched it closely, a trick of balance. 
They tried similar experiments among themselves, 
and found that when one of their number placed his 
finger on the neck of another it was almost impossi- 
ble to lift him ; the other trials failed, and they 
finally came to the conclusion there was some 
unusual power being manifested. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRINCIPLES OF NATURE. 

Nature is the manifestation of a hidden energy 
which we call God. The principles of nature are, 
strictly speaking, methods or laws of action. Each 
thing has a nature of its own : and the nature of one 
thing differs entirely from the nature of other things, 
as the nature of a horse is unlike that of a dog, cat, 
bird or man. But there is a resemblance, and these 
resemblances, divergent as they are to the point of 
utter and complete antagonism, emanate from one 
universal source of energy which actuates and creates 
the various natures of which we are cognizant. If 
it were possible to know of the jfirst manifestation of 
energy, it would undoubtedly be that of inertia — 
repose — silence — as a seed just planted. 

Nature is movement; but what of that thing 
around which motion turns ? Motion cannot exist 
without a center ; which is not manifest or known 
except through motion. The nature of things is to 
move and in motion to change : but the nature of 

27 



28 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

inertia — which is not an object — is to be silent and 
draw, — wooing things to itself. Centers do not 
move ; but, womb-like, produce things. 

Nature belongs to energy : it is not an entity ; but 
it is the property of entities. My nature belongs to 
me: it is my property, as is my coat, in which I 
clothe myself for my satisfaction. 

I change my nature in like manner as I do my 
apparel, although the processes are invisible and 
more slowly accomplished. 

Everything in existence has a nature w r hich is 
nothing more nor less than the condition in which it 
is, and which, being understood, constitutes the so- 
called principles of nature. A principle is that which 
is self-existent, self-poised, eternal and immutable. 
An object cannot be such. Why? Because things 
or objects change in motion. 

All the principle that exists in nature is that invis- 
ible and incomprehensible energy which thinks and 
forces things to be ; wherein it objectifies itself. 

Those things which appear to be inert, or which 
are called "dead matter," are wholly dependent 
upon inexorable law, or certain fixed rules or methods ; 
whereby existence is possible. 

The principle of their existence — or their nature 
— is to lie still, and to receive the kneading and 
moulding given by a force greater than they have 
themselves. As an egg, under the pressure and heat 
of the brooding hen, lies inert, silent, breathless and 
expectant, so does matter — the beginning of nature 



PRINCIPLES OF NA PURE. 29 

— lie bound and chained in the grasp of inexorable 
law waiting the coming of the Master to open the 
prison door and set free the captive Ego. Oh, 
dawn of sense! Thou rising sun of freedom's day! 
Whence comest thou ? Who taught thee ? Who 
gave thee the first impulse to break the law that 
bound thee fast — as a chick breaks through the shell 
which shuts out the light of another life ? Oh, sense ! 
Thou risest up and thou fallest even as does the 
sun, — typical of growth and decay, — the two great 
opposing principles of nature, which are in reality 
only the movements of one thing, — Ego. 

Action and reaction, attraction and repulsion, good 
and evil, light and darkness, mind and matter, heat 
and cold : all are called principles of nature, when in 
fact, they are simply manifestations of the power 
that produces nature. There is a nature of life, 
also a nature of death, a nature of health and a nature 
of disease ; but, in order that such natures may ex- 
ist, some one must live and die, or enjoy and suffer. 

The only way by which energy may be known is 
by what it does ; and nature is its first work and the 
methods or ways of its doings constitute the prin- 
ciples thereof. 

The great principle by which creation is carried 
on, is the mathematical principle of division, multi- 
plication or expansion. 

A unit equally divided becomes two units, but 
when quartered there are four units ; and no matter 
how minute the division may be, each part is still a 



30 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

unit and equal to the original unit which is lost in the 
division. Furthermore, the difference between the 
division of matter and the division of energy is as 
follows : — matter by division becomes less and less 
till nothing is left, while energy becomes sexual by 
division, and thus propagative of its kind ; thereby 
creating, by division, new sources of energy. 

The division of energy here alluded to is as follows : 
— one part being the energy of giving, while the 
other part is the energy of receiving, — "'Male and 
Female created He them." 

These two great principles of division and multi- 
plication, are virtually one, the creative principle of 
God, motion and emotion, — called nature. 

Matter is under law ; but God is above all law. 
Energy is divided into two unequal parts, viz. — the 
known and the unknown. That very small part 
called the known is again divided into four elements, 
called fire, water, earth, and air ; or the four king- 
doms, — mineral, vegetable, animal and human ; or 
the four points of the compass, — north, south, east 
and west ; or the four great principles, — darkness 
and light, life and death ; while the great undivided 
and unknown occupies the center of creation and is 
the Ego — or man. 

This center I conceive to be a vacuum ; because 
it is the opposite of matter and of motion. 

It is the soul of man ; the throne of the Ego ; 
that principle which says, thinks, feels and knows 
that "I Am." This is the dome of the Temple of 
the GREAT GOD. 



PRINCIPLES OF NATURE. 3 1 

Motion cannot exist without a vacuum around 
which to whirl and produce a vortex, into which 
spirit may rush, as into a womb, to gestate and take 
form. 

Intelligence is synonymous with light ; while 
ignorance is the same as darkness. 

til we know of creation is revealed by light. 
Alas ! How very small it is when compared to the 
boundless and fathomless depths of ignorance which 
enclose it, as the night encloses a fire-fly. 

Nature is always dual ; but God is one who has 
no opposite and is beyond comparison. 

Man cannot exist except he rest in the bosom of 
that mystery whose symbol is the darkness which 
conceals all things — even life and light itself — and 
invites to sweet repose. 

Nature, the first manifestation of GOD, is a won- 
drous mystery, containing within itself GOD and all 
the known and unknown things of creation : formless, 
yet producing forms, which, being ignorant, are made 
intelligent ; blind, and made to see ; without sense, 
yet made sensible : and all by reason of GOD who 
"is all, and in all." 

That nature per se is a relentless, unfeeling, re- 
morseless power, needs no argument. It moves on, 
regardless of the waste of worlds, or the sacrifice of 
life or forms. To nature, death is the same as birth ; 
and it creates forms but to destroy them. 

Nature suffers not, neither does she enjoy. Re- 
move sensation from nature, and it is neither good 



32 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

nor evil. The earth, water, air, electricity, the sun, 
moon and stars, without something with which to 
make comparison, are all alike indifferently good 
or evil. 

There can be no good or evil save to and for things 
that suffer and enjoy. This indifference corresponds 
to ignorance, for, out of indifferent nature comes all 
of life ; even as knowledge springs from ignorance. 
And what is ignorance but the night of mind : as 
intelligence is the rising sun of sense.. Who has 
explored the depths of the night of time which is 
behind us ; or who can tell us of the extent or nature 
of the future, which, like a black impenetrable wall, 
closes us up in the tomb of a moment of time ? 

We come from the night, and to it we return, 
when wearied, for a renewal of life. We have no 
recollection of that which transpired when we were 
in the dark waters of the womb ; nor are we con- 
scious that we are even now gestating, in souls we 
call our own, from the formless spirit of brooding 
darkness, the smouldering or the brighter light of 
forms which cannot help the conscious feeling of 
being number ONE, the great I himself. 

~ That is, indeed, the principle of nature, which the 
world calls GOD. 

As already stated, all things are dual, and nature 
is both animate and inanimate, while law is that force 
which compels inanimate things to either cease to be 
or to move on to another plane of being. Law is 
then, both destructive and constructive, as to things 
that are under the law. 



PRINCIPLES OF NATURE. 33 

But in the evolution of humanity there is a point 
of growth wherein that outward force of circum- 
stances which governs and controls the weak, becomes 
an inner force, a force of thought, reason and re- 
flection, which guides and directs by persuasion and 
counsel, rather than by the violence of pain, which 
leads upward and onward to the realm of power, 
where man and law are ONE, and where pain and 
death are not. Is it not a fact that the external 
force of light causes physical eyes and sight to exist, 
and is it not also a fact that an inner force analogous 
to light, causes spiritual eyes and sight to exist, eyes 
which see principles rather than symbols, and the 
reason and use of things rather than the theatrical 
play of existence. 

It is this inner light which suggests to man the 
power and privilege of choice of principles of nature 
and of action ; which enables him to make the most 
of himself. 



34 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER II. 

NATURE AND LIFE. 

To define life, is to live: for in our efforts to 
define a thing or principle, we unconsciously become 
like that which we attack. Analysis without defini- 
tion is destruction. To define life is a herculean 
task. Life is a manifestation of something having 
power to feel which resides in an organization. 

All things visible are simply effects of some hidden 
cause — causes are always hidden. The true mode 
of reasoning is from effects towards causes, which, 
receding as we advance, we only approximate. 

Life as it looks to us is an effect of causes going 
before, a result of organization; but to the thinker 
it is the cause of the organization and all that follows 
its movements. 

We know the uses of things we make, but of the 
use of the things which God makes, we are, in the 
main, supremely ignorant. Of this class is the phe- 
nomena we call life. Many learned books are written 
and the earth is deluged with sermons whose object 
is to make clear this sublime mystery of life, but 
their contents are merely a collection of words, — 
a mass of conjectures falsely called revelations. 



NATURE AND LIFE. 35 

Who knows the quality, value and use of any form 
or manifestation of life ? It comes and goes as does 
the breath, leaving little if any trace behind, — just 
a name or a sign that it has been here. The in- 
spired apostle John said, " In the beginning was the 
word/' and I am of the opinion that it is also the 
end of the matter as well ; for what matters the mul- 
tiplication of names ? 

Life means simply, to our dull comprehension, 
things in motion ; but to a deeper and more compre-^/ 
hensive sense it includes inertia. All is life. Even 
that which we call death is another name for our 
ignorance. 

If we say that nature causes life, we misstate the 
fact ; for the lives we lead, make our natures. We 
are as we act, and do not act naturally. The motion 
we call life is merely the " becoming " of ourselves, or 
the coming into recognition of the Ego, which, stand- 
ing between life and death, doth regulate all motion. 

The only absolute fact is that which vtefeel. All 
animate nature exists by reason of feeling and all the 
phenomena of existence leads thereto. 

Mind is the sun of the Spirit, which, like the 
world, must needs polarize itself. At one pole are 
the five physical senses ; at the other pole are the 
intellectual senses or the powers of induction and de- 
duction. 

Are not all these powers real ? In their sphere 
they are each true ; although, like heat and cold, they 
are opposites and war with each other. 



36 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

By virtue of these five senses the earth appears as 
an undulating plain, with the sun rising, moving over 
head, and setting at night. We are always on the 
top of the earth, and the heavens are above. 

No mode of reasoning can make us feel that we 
are half of the time underneath — or standing out 
sideways in space. That this is owing to our rela- 
tionship to the earth I freely admit, but the knowl- 
edge we have gained through the exercise of the 
higher intellect sets aside the basic facts of existence, 
and proves them a delusion of sense. Now which 
is correct ? May not the facts of intellect be a de- 
lusion of sense, also ? There is no absoluteness in 
man, save his existence. 

These same senses cause us to feel pleasure and 
pain. Is this fact a delusion of sense ? These 
senses tell us of the up and the down ; and that the 
reversal of ourselves is death. We instinctively love 
pleasure, which we call good, and elevate it as God. 
But we dread pain, and avoid it as the devil, which is 
low down and to be kept down, if possible. Reason 
as you will, sail around the globe, explore space 
and measure the stars, and then teach that there is 
no high and low, no good or evil, no up or down ; 
but still common sense remains — as nature remains 
— a solemn protest against the light of the intellect 
as a guide to those deep and fundamental principles 
of existence ; which to be of any value must bring 
pleasure instead of pain. Human analysis leads the 
soul to nothing; while the universal instinct warns 



NATURE AND LIFE. 37 

man of the evils of pain and death — as if creative 
genius has planted in man a something in which the 
brute shares — that causes him to dread death, and 
to value life. 

And furthermore an instinct tells him of a nature 
long since forgotten, save in legend ; of the unnatural 
state in which he now lives, or rather suffers, and of 
a supernatural state to which he may attain. 

The instinct or common sense of atoms, impels 
each to remain in its place and keep silent in obedi- 
ence to the law of attraction ; but the soul gives 
intellectual wings to dull matter, enabling it to fly 
even as thought flies, to mingle with the source of all 
life and light and to find a common relationship 
existing from the lowest to the highest, and common 
sense and common things as essential as the highest. 

The lowly clod is as necessary as yonder sun and 
the highest sense, by virtue of its greatness, recog- 
nizes the kinship of all things, — even senseless ones. 

Action and reaction are the great laws of nature 
but inertia is as necessary as they ; since the phe- 
nomena of motion could not exist were there nothing 
silent and still whereby to measure the velocity of 
things in motion. Now that sense which is the 
nearest to no sense (the inertia of atoms) is common 
sense, which knows nothing except what it suffers 
and enjoys, that is satisfied in its ignorance and bliss, 
which knows no future and has no aspiration, — is 
that sense just above blank ignorance — the sense 
nearest to the soul. 



38 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

There is a point where motion has a beginning — 
a point where there is no motion — and a center 
around which all things move. 

We know it exists ; yet the loftiest mind has not 
found such a center, nor have the poles of the earth 
been discovered. Perhaps they will be and possibly 
an absolute vacuum may yet be a demonstrated fact ; 
but at present all things are related to each other, 
and there is nothing absolute except the consequences 
of being. These are a point of the supernatural 
barely protruding itself above the floor of ignorance, 
a gleam of light escaping through impenetrable dark- 
ness, or infinite being narrowing itself down from 
immensity to finite proportions, — points of light, of 
sense and of consciousness, which grow from vacancy 
or mere nothing, the lowest sense, to become in time 
and eternity, infinite again, by escaping through 
ignorance and darkness. Such is life, parts of one 
grand homogenous whole ; which cannot be particled. 
It is the same in worm as in man. The little life of 
one thing is just as potent, and as great for that 
thing, as the greater life is for another. If the life 
of one thing is immortal, then all life is. But the life 
may be beaten out of a thing by processes, to be 
explained hereafter, so that it, as a thing, has no self- 
supporting power. 

Everything is dual — " Male and female created 
he them/' — darkness and light, ignorance and intelli- 
gence, cold and heat, evil and good, opposites, antago- 
nists, all go hand in hand — inseparable. There is 



NATURE AND LIFE. 39 

nothing known but has its opposite ; and one being 
given, the other may be found close at hand. Fur- 
thermore, the third thing, that which makes the 
triangle of imperfection, resides always within the 
two visible parts. 

Two things being placed side by side are said to 
be in contact ; but there is always something between 
them, which prevents them from becoming one, for 
absolute contact is oneness. That which separates 
things is condition. Distance is condition. If all 
things were in like condition, they would fuse and 
blend so that all form would be lost. This third 
thing — that is not a thing — this something intan- 
gible and immaterial, I call the soul of things ; for 
by virtue of it things exist and have motion. 



40 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE UNNATURAL. 

I have already defined nature as action and not 
the actor, or as the law and not the lawgiver ; and 
also intimated that God — or, in other words, the 
Ego called man is, when really at the apex of intel- 
ligence and power, both the law and the law maker, 
— or both creator and creature. These ideas are 
very difficult to understand, but they are at the very 
foundation of all progress, since our ideas of God 
constitute the seed of our natures, or the motor of 
our acts. We grow to be like that which we love 
and of which we think the most ; and the attributes 
with which we, in our thoughts, clothe God, slowly 
but surely become our own. In our efforts to find 
truth we must start upon facts ; and the fact, that 
man is far, very far from being perfect in any sense 
of the word whatever is very patent. 

There must be intelligence far superior to any of 
which we have knowledge. It is above us even as we 
are above idiocy or insanity. When, in the evolution 
of man, mind has reached the power of comparison, 
a line or standard of excellence is established in his 
very nature, above which he rises or below which 
he falls. 



THE UNNATURAL. 4 1 

Now nature being action, it is certain that every 
thoughtful person will decide in his mind upon some 
acts or method of action which he considers to be 
proper, right and natural. This line is the moral 
standard, which separates the human from the animal 
kingdom, above which man seldom rises and below 
which the race grovels now, as it ever has, through 
countless ages of time. 

This standard is the law of God, which every re- 
sponsible person makes for himself by the power of 
his own thought, and which is an inexorable force, 
compelling everything beneath it to think, to see, to 
grow and to become greater, because better. 

Thus is man a progressive being, by reason of 
being unnatural ; for, if it were possible for man to 
act in perfect harmony with all the forces both with- 
out and within, he could not improve himself, nor 
anything of his surroundings. 

It is by reason of man's perception of imperfection 
that the idea of improvement finds place in the 
human mind. It is the pain of an empty stomach 
which makes food pleasant ; and man, having had a 
taste of pleasure, has become insane with the lust of 
owning the whole world, and even woman herself, 
although she is his mother. 

Above, below and around us is a black night, in 
which we are, in the main, hidden from ourselves. 
The dark future conceals from our poor eyes the con- 
sequences, which, demon-like, leap out with our every 
act, to curse or to bless us. 



42 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

In our ignorance of the future we get an imagina- 
tive idea of some great good to be derived from doing 
some certain thing. Immediately we set about it ; 
and, being led captive by the object in view, regard- 
less of heat and cold, hunger or thirst, pain or 
pleasure, we rush along till exhausted. 

Exhaustion is disease. It is unnatural ! All 
disease is unnatural. It comes from action, — the 
action of a Free Will. That man has become the 
most unnatural being in existence, is caused not only 
by his freedom of action, but by his greater range of 
action, his greater power of thought, invention, and 
imagination. 

If nature be considered indifferent, man antago- 
nizes it in every particular. He is a being of thought, 
judgment, memory, imagination, craft, love and will. 
Pride and ambition are his ruling traits. 

Many there be who claim that all things are 
natural ; that there is no transcending nature ; that 
man cannot violate or go contrary to nature's laws. 
The inevitable conclusion derived from the foregoing 
is, that man is a mere machine, moving only as he is 
moved upon ; that there is no such thing as volition : 
no high, no low, no merit or demerit, no good, no evil. 
Such conclusions must be false. Why ? Because it 
is contrary to experience, and every-day facts of exist- 
ence. By virtue of our organization, and by virtue of 
the conditions of our very being, there exists the high 
and low, the above and below, etc., and any conclu- 
sions of logic, which set these mundane facts aside, 
are based on false premises. 



THE UNNATURAL. 43 

What a demon, nature or God must be, to hold us 
responsible for the violation of laws, when we have 
no power to help ourselves. But, they assert further, 
that there is no violation of law ; that nature's laws 
cannot be broken. I simply ask, do we not suffer for 
the violence we do to ourselves ? Most assuredly. 
Then why does nature, or God, necessity, or fate 
make us suffer for doing that which we cannot help 
doing ? 

Man is of necessity a law maker, and, in his igno- 
rance, cannot conform to nature's laws. To conform 
to nature would be to revolve in an eternal circle ; 
but man, in striving for the new, breaks through 
the circle of ignorance and indifference, and gets 
hurt in so doing. Thus he becomes diseased by his 
own act. 

I freely admit that he cannot help violating the 
law on account of ignorance, since his whole being 
is action, but each act or violation is a creation, and 
is more pleasing to man because it is his own. And 
furthermore, the ignorance we complain of is in our- 
selves, and not in surroundings. Thus we compel 
ourselves to act ; each act creates light, and light is 
the object of our existence. Evil is our teacher. It 
is wisely ordered that we should suffer ; for that 
increases action or light, to which we are responsible, 
and by which all are judged. We are nature, neces- 
sity, or fate. 

" Whatever is, is right ! " No, indeed ; the reverse 
is nearer the truth. There is nothing true to its con- 



44 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

dition ; if things were true and right, there would be 
no need of improvement, and no possible room for it. 
There would be no foreshadowing of a better state 
of things : no aspirations, no longings, no heart -aches, 
no weariness of soul. There is little of right and 
truth in all things ; just enough to give us a taste of 
the good, and make us dissatisfied with our present 
condition, and spur us on to effort to better it. 

No man can climb who is at the top of the ladder. 
Truth and right are far, very far, above us, but we 
get flashes and gleams of the glory occasionally, 
which show us where we stand on the ladder. Hide- 
ous, weird, fantastic shapes glare out of the darkness 
beneath, but above us is light, truth, knowledge, love, 
glory, harmony. Nature is harmony, but the unnat- 
ural is discord. 

Man is unnatural because he makes himself less 
than nature. He pretends to love nature, but in 
reality he despises it. We are creatures of art. We 
are made up mainly of hereditary and acquired habits. 
These have become a second nature, which we admire. 
This second nature I call the unnatural. True, nature 
keeps along with us in our downward course, and 
fights manfully against disease ; restoring us in sleep, 
and adapting itself to our vices and crimes. 

It is our voluntary powers which ruin us, but it is 
the involuntary which give us what little health we 
have. When we forget ourselves in sweet sleep, 
nature asserts itself ; and even then the abnormal 
habits of our daily lives prevent her work. There is 



THE UNNATURAL. 45 

very little indifferent sleep. We are too intense ; the 
intensity of the day disturbs the night. We cannot 
forget that which we love : our daily avocations, our 
graspings, our hoarding up, our over-reaching of each 
other : these haunt us in our sleep. Nature must 
play second. Our natural habits we are ashamed of, 
and hide them away as we cover our nakedness. We 
take no lesson even from innocent childhood — 
glimpses of the kingdom of glory — but our earliest 
recollections are pointings of the finger of shame. 

To be dignified is the glory of civilization. To sup- 
press natural laughter, and smile instead, is grand ; 
to "put the best side out/' and to conceal the natural ; 
to pretend to be greater, or better than we are ; to 
think more of our looks, walk, manners, clothing, and 
the wealth of which we have robbed the poor, — this 
is civilization. To turn away from one poorly clad, 
not deigning an answer to a civil question ; to look 
coldly in the eye of a stranger, without speaking 
when accosted, because you have not been intro- 
duced: this is dignity; this is fashionable. To bow 
down to kings, popes, priests, and the nobility ; to 
shout and hurrah when they show themselves ; to 
toil to support them in their pomp and idleness ; 
to march in serried columns to deadly strife with 
each other ; to murder each other without enmity — 
this it is to be civilized. 

The earth is drenched with human gore, and her 
fair fields are rich with the bone-dust of humanity. 
The glory of one nation is the destruction of another. 



46 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

What for ? To perpetuate the damnable and un- 
natural idea that some men are better than others ; 
that some were made to rule while others were made 
to serve. Man has made this earth one vast pande- 
monium — a cesspool, out of which come malarial 
vapors and malarial beings, distorted in body, de- 
formed in mind, dwarfed in spirit. 

Look at the diabolical crimes — the fiendish actions 
of men, the wrong and outrage — at the deadly dis- 
eases constantly on the increase in type and malig- 
nancy — and then say, if you can, that these things 
are natural. I cannot. Alas ! how we degrade na- 
ture or God in the bare idea. Not willing to ac- 
knowledge the responsibility that belongs to him, he, 
ADAM-like, hides his nakedness behind the fig leaves, 
and ascribes to fate, nature, chance or necessity the 
actions of which he is ashamed. 

"Forced into the world, forced through it, and 
forced out again/ ' he is taught that an innocent one 
will bear the blame, suffer the penalty, and take all 
the responsibility of his actions ; while at the same 
time he is groaning under adversity, and suffering 
from disease resulting from his own acts, which he 
might have avoided with a little knowledge and self- 
control. 

The natural and the unnatural go hand in hand, as 
matter and sense, body and mind, the voluntary and 
involuntary, ignorance and knowledge — the same 
as the opposite poles of a magnet. 

Matter and mind are the two poles of an invisible 



THE UNNATURAL. 47 

magnet. Mind is no more a result of matter than 
matter is a result of mind. They both exist, and are 
mutually dependent, not upon each other, but upon the 
force residing between. In the magnet — the magic 
mirror — we glimpse the supernatural, nature, 
inertia, indifference, as an image of the real re- 
versed. For in this whirl of atoms and worlds, and 
the awful saturnalia of human passions, the real does 
not appear on the surface ; hence far beneath the 
scum of civilization lies the mirror all befogged, and 
obscured from all eyes save those of the spirit. And 
even the spirit cannot perceive the real, except as an 
image or symbol — thrown by perpetual motion upon 
the mirror of the mind. Nature works in and through 
this outward show, but God is above and compre- 
hends all. The real nature of man is covered with 
filthy rags — with which he has clothed himself. 



THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 



CHAPTER IV. 

HEREDITY VS. PROGRESS. 

The past is a fearful burden which the present is 
compelled to carry. 

The memory of past follies, failures, and weak- 
nesses, prevents our rising to the full altitude of our 
power " to take the tide of fortune " at the moment 
when it offers success. In great and trying emer- 
gencies man loses sight of himself and the past, and, 
surprising himself, is truly great. It is the knowledge 
— or supposed facts — of the past which retards 
progress. Ideas of heredity leave us little hope. 
We argue that our ancestors have made us what 
we are, and therefore they and they only are to 
blame for our sins. Heredity makes mere machines 
of us or, as Paul says, " pots, some made to honor 
and some made to dishonor." 

The conclusion is self-evident that if a creator be 
admitted or assumed (other than the creature) the 
maker must take upon himself the entire responsi- 
bility for that which he makes, and it is upon this 
ground that fault-finding, blame or curses are pre- 
dicated. 

A beginning establishes an end ■ — a first proves a 



HEREDITY VS. PROGRESS. 49 

last — a highest establishes the lowest — a personal 
God makes a personal Devil possible. This assump- 
tion is the foundation of thrones, crowns, caste, hered- 
itary rights, " blue blood/' etc. to the end of slavery. 

The right to blame or to curse others for what 
they do, inheres in an unwarranted and false assump- 
tion of superiority. Of course the " right of way " 
belongs to the first, and the right to make the law 
and to judge another, also belongs to the maker ; for, 
indeed, who can be so capable of judging of a ma- 
chine as the constructor of it. / 

But the judgment, taking the form of an uttered 
eurse from the creative lips of Jehovah sounds 
curious and ominous to me and to the world. This 
first curse is the beginning of heredity. It has re- 
verberated from sun to sun, from pole to pole, from 
center to circumference in worlds and atoms, 
throughout the vast cycles of time, till the grass and 
even the very fruits and flowers of the earth have 
become tinctured with its poisonous and malign in- 
fluence and even man comes into existence, a living, 
howling curse. It ferments in his blood and, boiling 
over, froths on his lips, or, descending in lust, is 
transmitted to posterity. 

The wail of a new born babe — the first sound it 
makes — is a protest against the hereditary burden 
it senses, and w r hich grows in time into violence and 
crime, — the curse materialized. 

Ideas are hereditary, as well as disease, insanity, 
flesh and blood. 



50 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Everything which obstructs progress shortens 
human life and limits power, — as false ideas, disease, 
inharmony, violation of one's own sense of justice and 
right. All these and more are hereditary and the 
mainspring and foundation of material action, upon 
which foundation we build ourselves into a temple 
of the living God, or hovels in which vermin crawl 
and hiss. 

The belief m a creator who uttered the first curse \ is 
a hereditary poison which destroys freedom and even 
the soul itself. Besides it furnishes an excuse for 
men to curse ; for that which God does, every 
" God-like' ' person should at least try to do. 

Furthermore, Justice and Mercy are the highest 
attributes of the spirit, and any false or low estimate 
which man may conceive of these powers, is sure to 
debase his nature and disease him physically. 

The concept of God's justice as set forth in the 
legend of the creation and the fall of man, is a con- 
ception unworthy of a savage, though it has been 
accepted in its literal aspect as absolute truth, and 
worshiped from time immemorial, until it has become 
the soul of individuals, families and governments. 

Possibly Adam and Eve deserved punishment for 
disobedience ; but the serpent had disobeyed no 
command and had been guilty of nothing but speak- 
ing the truth. 

God had made the serpent, had given him that 
" subtile " nature which belongs to intelligence and 
had placed no restrictions upon his use of the same ; 



HEREDITY VS. PROGRESS. 5 1 

and then to punish him without mercy, for using the 
powers He had given him in imparting to poor stupid 
Eve the truth which God withheld, is certainly a 
strange sort of justice. 

The hereditary descent of such ideas of the highest 
and most ennobling attributes of the human soul 
must account for the lost and degraded condition in 
which man to-day is. 

The truth of heredity no one can deny. It is the 
anchor of progress. It is the almost insurmountable 
barrier between man and the abode of the Gods. 

It is the Karma of the Buddhistic cult : without it 
forms would cease to be. The curse exists in nature ; 
but in all fairness, let us give the great mind who 
originated the legend of Genesis, the credit of hon- 
esty and candor, as well as power of thought. He 
never supposed that any thoughtful person would 
take literally, that which common sense and nature 
demonstrate as impossible. Who has heard God, 
and who has seen Him at any time ? 

There are two classes of facts, — those which are 
known and those which are unknown : those of the 
senses and those of the intellect, and these antago- 
nize each other while truth resides in and between 
them, — the soul thereof ; as heredity on one hand, 
progress on the other, with God represented by man, 
between, for whom and by whom they are made. 

Were it not for his will, man would not be here. 
He loves and wills to exist. The ancient writer of 
Genesis called this love and will, " The Elohim ; " 



52 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

which, when literally considered and allegorically 
written about, became objectified, personified and 
called God ; and as such, hereditarily transmitted, it 
becomes the foundation of theology. 

Moses, when codifying the laws of nature, repre- 
sents God as declaring to the Jews, — "I the Lord, 
thy God, am a Jealous God ; visiting the iniquities 
of the fathers upon the children to the third and 
fourth generation of those who hate me." 

Taken literally, we behold jealousy and injustice 
exalted and personified as God ; but when taken in 
its spiritual significance, it has the following meaning. 
Love, the highest attribute of the spiritual nature of 
man, the warmth and life of his blood, and the ruler 
and giver of all his pleasure, should be the only 
actuating principle of his life, should be kept pure, 
simple and clean in thought, and should not be in- 
flamed by images or lustful pictures in the mind, as 
idols to be looked at or served ; for thereby lust 
would become the ruling force, another God, of 
violence, which by fermentation in the blood would 
produce jealousy; in which "the blood runs cold " 
with hate, and diseases, which take hold on death, 
and are not cured " to the third or fourth genera- 
tion/' 

Jealousy is inflamed or lustful love, which en- 
genders hate and crime and produces syphilis and all 
manner of diseases hard to cure. It is a fact, though 
scarcely known, that the ancient Jews were sex 
worshipers ; St. John corroborates this by saying, 



HEREDITY VS. PROGRESS. 53 

"God is love," and Isaiah exclaims, — "our God 
is a consuming fire" — sexual fire — burning lust. 

In those times all peoples were sex worshipers, 
and resorted to all manner of methods of excitement, 
debaucheries or excesses, which were called worship 
or serving ; and Moses, seeing the evil of it, enacted 
laws to preserve cleanliness, purity, simplicity, one- 
ness, wholeness, or Holiness or one method of wor- 
ship, for the sole and only purpose of preventing 
disease. 

" God is love," love is law, method, order, oneness. 
The only way through the meshes of Karma and the 
only remedy for hereditary ills, is in the Ego itself, 
the prime actor and representative of God in these 
bodies. Things are more than they appear to be. 
We are hidden from ourselves and the great truth of 
heredity is covered up in the individual himself. 
Being made conscious of failures and wrong actions, 
we are ashamed of ourselves and immediately find 
excuses behind which to hide. The blame of another 
for our acts or misfortunes shows our shame and 
infernal egotism. The search for external causation 
is prompted by our attempts to escape the pain of 
self condemnation. We know that we act ; and that 
we suffer and enjoy by reason thereof. What I am 
to-day, my thoughts and acts in this life and other 
stages of existence, have made me. 

Memory carries my past life along with me in so 
far as it is able to do so. It is thus stored up for re- 
flection, to become the material of which my body is 



54 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

made. But, when memory fails to connect me with 
other lives I have lived, and I find myself in possession 
of a body fresh from my mother, a body of which I 
know nothing, and over which I have no power though 
confined within it and compelled to learn to use it, I 
know by this that I am not the body, but am sepa- 
rate from it ; yet I am compelled to inhabit this 
body, to take it up slowly and laboriously atom by 
atom and to learn to use it and make it my own. 

What is this body but dead memories of past 
events, a reminder of what I have formerly been and 
done ? Acts follow us through our parents, taking 
nothing but an outer gloss or appearance from them ; 
but our club feet, hunch backs, insanity and diseases 
are our own. 

Accept them. Be not ashamed. * Try " to do 
better. 



BODY AND SPIRIT, 55 



CHAPTER V. 

BODY AND SPIRIT. 

Man is the ultimate, or fruit of the tree of life. 
The lower orders of animate creatures may be termed 
the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, etc., — but man 
is the fruit. Some say, "he is an epitome of the 
universe/* This is a mistaken idea. Men differ 
one from another as the lower animals differ, or the 
various orders of vegetables. The apple is a species 
of fruit, but there are many varieties of apples. 
However much men may differ in looks, form, man- 
ners and disposition, there is one peculiarity notice- 
able in all, viz., the correspondence to the lower 
orders. We all resemble, more or less, some variety 
of the lower orders ; and the less the resemblance 
the further is the removal therefrom. Some have 
the tiger, lion, vulture, hawk, eagle, sheep, goat, cat, 
lynx, ox, owl, serpent, various kinds of fishes, etc., etc., 
"ad infinitum" predominating. Some by their build 
and motions show that they have just come up out 
of the water — or, possibly, may be going back into 
it. Man is an epitome of those elements through 
which he has been evolved. We carry something of 
what we have been, along with us, viz., the spirit. 



56 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

And some, having evolved upward through certain 
elements, are an epitome of those elements, but not 
of others. Elements are many ; but power is not 
based in elements, neither can immortality be predi- 
cated therein. 

Animals are but vegetables cut loose at the roots ; 
man differs from them only in degree. He has all 
that they have, and a little more, generally, in some 
directions ; but some animals are nearer human than 
some men. According to Darwin, man has de- 
scended from the ape. According to my understand- 
ing there is as much logic in saying that the ape is a 
degenerated man. "It is a poor rule that won't 
work both ways." If man ascends he also descends. 

We make distinctions, in our ignorance, of prin- 
ciples, which, in reality, do not exist. If an animal 
can evolve into a man, a man may retrograde into 
an animal. Progression is no more a law than retro- 
gression. If man ever had a beginning, he certainly 
must have an end, no matter how long it may be 
delayed. If he progress eternally, he certainly can- 
not always remain man. Progress means change, 
growth to better conditions, and conditions change the 
form and nature. If man never had a beginning, he 
can never have an end. But, suppose this idea to 
be true, and progression without retrogression to be 
the law of being, is it not a little strange that man is 
no higher in the scale of being after having been 
eternally progressing ? Remember, the eternity of 
the past is the same as that of the future. Why is 



BODY AND SPIRIT, 57 

he no greater, if he has always existed and been 
always growing ? If he is merely an infant on this 
earth, is it logical to conclude that he will remain the 
same and still keep on growing eternally ? 

The distinctions we make between things are 
merely arbitrary. Life is one. Man has no more 
right to immortality than the brute. Man, in his 
pride and egotism, claims for himself a special crea- 
tion and existence after death, but denies it to the 
brute. This is not a logical deduction. Man is a 
name merely that we give to a manifestation of life 
to distinguish it from other manifestations. We 
make distinctions to which we give names, which 
are very satisfactory to most men. Names are very 
satisfactory to children, but he who seeks for prin- 
ciples, cares little for names. But in order to con- 
vey ideas, and to be understood, and to distinguish 
one thing from another, names are important. 

" Man/' then, is the name given to the highest type 
of life we are acquainted with on this earth, and the 
term body is applied to the visible part. But the 
real man is an idea — as much so as that represented 
by any piece of mechanism. 

There can be only owe principle in existence. The 
moment you admit two, one bounds and limits the 
other. Very suggestive of the positive and negative 
poles of a magnet. Laying all speculation aside, we 
do not know what "infinity" is, more than we know 
what man or anything else is. If we should, at some 
time, discover what it is, it would, after all, be only 



y 



58 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

another name added to our vocabulary. I cannot find 
a name for "her who is nameless" that third thing — 
the mother of power and weakness, of God and of 
nature. The loftiest thought cannot go beyond the 
realm of things, for thought belongs to things. The 
most fertile imagination cannot find a field that does 
not exist, in which to revel. 

The insane is as real as the sane, although we may 
not think it desirable or healthy. Perhaps there are 
some who love insanity. Who shall say that the 
dividing line between sanity and insanity is a fiction ? 
That dividing line — that neutral ground, is the 
body — matter. 

Science is unable to tell us of all the substances 
that compose the human form. There is something 
which escapes the closest analysis, or the most subtle 
and searching thought. The scalpel fails to find the 
spirit ; so science fails to find aught but the dross of 
these bodies. There is a something hidden away in 
matter that holds each atom in its place ; aye ! and 
gives form to all atoms — which is master, and yet a 
prisoner ; lord, but yet a servant. There is a some- 
thing in matter lying latent which is not heat nor 
flame, but which, when let loose, produces heat, flame 
and combustion. 

It is the " Fire " the ancient Magi worshiped. It 
is not magnetism, nor the astral fluid, neither is it 
light, nor electricity ; for these are but effects of its 
freedom. There is a spark lying dormant in matter, 
which, when aroused by friction, decomposes all 



y 



BODY AND SPIRIT. 59 

forms. If set in motion gently and by degrees, it 
refines matter and causes growth, attracting and re- 
pelling matter. If struck out by violence, it produces 
conflagrations and destruction. Worlds are sustained 
and destroyed by this spark of fire. It is a useful 
servant to man, but when it gets beyond his control 
it is a cruel and remorseless master. This Fire is 
. the Spirit. 

It is in all things, and is the life thereof. In fact, 
things are but forms of spirit condensed. Life is a 
liberation of spirit. All matter evolves from itself an 
aura, peculiar to its condition. This aura is produced 
by the gentle motion of things, in growth and in 
death. All atoms are in motion, for spirit is cease- 
lessly active. 

Swedenborg says there is a sphere belonging to and 
surrounding all things. It is more perceptible in 
some things than in others. Baron Reichenbach 
instituted a series of experiments with various metals 
and stones which he submitted to sensitive persons in 
a darkened chamber, and has written a work in which 
he claims the same thing as true, so far as tested by 
him. This aura I term spirit, or a result of the 
action of that hidden fire, which has been worshiped 
in ancient days as God, in honor of which the eternal 
altar-fires were kept burning, and men bowed down 
to the sun and worshiped Him as the most perfect 
symbol of fire, or God. 

All matter is undergoing change, and this change 
is growth, and growth is life, and life is the freeing 



60 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

of fire or spirit. All matter is in a state of combus- 
tion ; some forms slowly, others with great intensity. 
This combustion may not be perceptible to our dull 
senses, but that only proves our blindness. Growth 
is the throwing off effete matter and taking on new. 
This is exactly the case with violent combustion. A 
burning pile throws off heat, smoke and flame, and 
draws to itself the atmosphere, which, rushing in, 
combines to increase the conflagration. This rushing 
in is but the baptism of matter with fire, which can- 
not exist without that influx. 

The body may be likened to a furnace : it must be 
fed with fuel ; and the atmosphere must meet that 
fuel in the system, or no fire is kindled and no heat 
generated. The lungs are the bellows which fan 
the fires of life. The pores of the body are escape 
pipes. 

The atmosphere is the aura or spirit of the earth, 
and all things on the earth live by inhaling it. Thus 
it may be seen that the spirit of one thing may sup- 
port another. Spirit absorbs spirit by combination, 
the same as fire absorbs the atmosphere. 

The body may be likened to a horse-shoe magnet, 
or a combination of them. The legs are suggestive 
of one ; the arms of another. We are, in fact, a com- 
bination of magnetic motors — or, possibly, a galvanic 
pile. May not our food furnish the alkali, the atmos- 
phere the acid, the union of which sets free the spirit 
(fire) of food, causing motion, heat, combustion, 
growth and life ? May not the liver correspond to 



BODY AND SPIRIT. 6 1 

the zinc, and the lungs to the copper plates of a 
battery? Connected by acids and alkalis in the 
system, a current is evolved, which dissolves and 
decomposes food as fire does wood. The fire thus 
set free from food becomes the aura (spirit) of the 
organism in which it was set free. Thus our spirits 
are made up in part from that which we eat. There 
can be no combustion without the union of matter 
and atmosphere. That union is the fusion or blend- 
ing of all forms into one, and that one is formless, 
viz., fire or spirit. 

Power resides in the formless. In the imponder- 
ables there is freedom, and without freedom there is 
no power manifested. To a spirit in bondage there 
is the darkness of matter, but a spirit set free is living 
light, an immortal fire, whieh consumes matter as the 
light of a lamp consumes oil. God is Fire, for 
" God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must 
worship in spirit and in truth." 

Matter is but fire that is quenched. All it needs 
is baptizing with a spark from God, and it begins to 
burn and glow with life as embers in a furnace glow 
with light. There is not an atom in the body that is 
not vibrating with the electric or magnetic fires which 
animate all things. It is, indeed, burning with a 
lurid and weird intensity truly amazing. And we 
might behold the grand and sublime spectacle if it 
were not for the obtuseness of our dull and material- 
istic senses. If once beheld, we would no longer 
wonder at the vast amount of fuel required daily to 
support this ethereal flame called life. 



62 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

The light emitted by these walking furnaces — 
these torches, these living machines — varies in in- 
tensity and volume, according to the nature and 
quality of the matter in combustion. Some lights 
are electric, radiating far and near ; so it is with some 
men. Others, again, are small, and emit a soft, mild 
light. Others, again, give out only a spark ; but 
most bodies are so undeveloped that the fires of life 
smoulder, and emit nothing but a fitful gleam now 
and then, amid vast volumes of smoke. 

This light emitted by all living beings — nay, by all 
things mundane and supermundane — is the spirit. 
It is the spirit of matter in combustion which con- 
stitutes the aura of plants, animals and men. The 
laws of combustion are the laws of the universe, and 
they are the laws of magnetism, — action and reaction, 
attraction and repulsion, an outgoing and incoming 
current — this is all. 

Hang a gold coin on the positive pole of a galvanic 
battery in a solution, and a piece of brass or copper 
on the negative pole in the solution, but not in contact 
with the coin, and the result is, the positive galvanic 
current dissolves the gold and carries it over to the 
negative, where it is deposited upon the piece of 
brass. Electro-magnetic physicians know that they 
can increase the vital powers of any portion of the 
system by the application of the negative electrode 
thereto ; and that they can reduce the action of any 
part by the application of the positive. 

Thus it is demonstrated that matter is dissolved 



BODY AND SPIRIT. 63 

and carried from one part of the system to another, 
where it may be deposited, or even carried out of the 
body. Now, we know that the female principle is 
the productive, or the principle wherein matter is 
combined into forms of life, and that the masculine 
is the principle from which such life or matter comes 
in solution, as the gold from the positive electrode. 

Every human being is a magnet, which evolves a 
positive force from itself, which dissolves and appro- 
priates to the body material of various kinds from 
food, and conveys it to renew the decaying tissues, 
while it also repels and eliminates that which is 
devitalized. 

But the negative principle or force is not evolution- 
ary but receptive, in which the positive deposits its 
burden of spirit. Thus is the body constantly renewed 
by a process little thought of, viz. : that of impregna- 
tion and gestation. All motion is magnetic ; and this 
is only another name given to the manifestation of fire 
— combustion. All things are in a state of combus- 
tion — some gently : this is growth and progress ; 
others with intensity, as a conflagration, in which the 
body is reduced to ashes, and the life of it back " to 
God who gave it." 

If attraction overbalance repulsion there is a slow 
combustion, a smouldering of the fire, in which other 
forms of matter appear (charcoal for instance). This 
is exactly the case with nature ; the half -extinguished 
fires of life preserve the form for a space of time. 
But notice the slow and certain change of form from 



64 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

infancy to old age, showing that repulsion is master 
after all. If repulsion over-balance attraction there 
is a rapid conflagration, and forms of matter disappear 
in smoke, vapor, heat and flame, to nothing — '-not 
even to the blue sky." 

It is to attraction that childhood owes its ruby 
cheeks and lips, and its exuberance of life. The 
immortal fires sparkle in its eye, and glow in its soft 
and rounded flesh through which it shines, ere shame 
has come to crimson the cheek and brow with a more 
lurid light, with a more intense combustion, in which 
the forms of youth change rapidly. 

To repulsion we owe the lustreless eye, pallid 
cheek, the gray hairs and wrinkles of age ; aye ! the 
death of the body comes through excess of repulsion. 
A proper balance is a marriage of these forces, in 
which more things are generated than has yet been 
dreamed of. 

The aura or spirit obeys the same laws. The 
positive is the seminal principle, which combines with 
the negative, thus forming new blood, new tissue, new 
vigor. 

Violent combustion is destructive to forms of 
matter, but the compounds resulting therefrom are 
of incalculable value to mankind. The ashes of wood 
are a compound resulting from combustion, but how 
much of its chemical properties come from that in- 
visible fire or spirit which resides in a negative state 
in the air we breathe and burn, is not known. 

The body is condensed aura or spirit, which liber- 



BODY AND SPIRIT. 6$ 

ated by motion, flows around it as light flows from a 
candle, passing out positive and returning negative. 
The condition of the matter (body) in combustion 
determines the brilliancy and power of the light. 

Of the constituent elements of the body, science 
says there are many, and goes on to name them. 
But, gentlemen, with all respect for your knowledge, 
your analyses and tests, your acids and crucibles, I 
must say I question your conclusions. Why? Be- 
cause a dead body is not the same as a living one. 
The moment it is dead it is in another condition ; the 
elements are changed and continue to change till 
there is nothing left of them. Analyze a dead 
bone, (you cannot analyze a live one), and you get 
compounds to which you give names; but names 
prove nothing. In your crucible, retort and receiver 
the spirit of the universe is adding itself to your 
work ; in fact, it is doing the work itself. You do 
not know how much of your own spirit enters into 
combination with the elements you are manipulating. 
Then why such a parade of knowledge ? We do not 
yet know the first letter of the alphabet of science. 

Take a tub of earth and weigh it ; then in it plant 
a seed. After a time you will have a tree ; remove 
the tree, and again weigh the tub of earth, and see 
how much less it weighs. You will find that the 
tree is made up almost entirely from the atmosphere ; 
which, indeed, is the spirit of the earth. Forms are 
a condensation of the invisible. 

The earth is none the less for having produced 



66 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

inanimate and animate things. A mother is not made 
less by child-bearing. The light of a lamp is not 
lessened by lighting other lamps. The human brain 
is not reduced by giving thought and ideas to the 
world, but its capacity is increased thereby. It is 
said that " man is like a candle : when the light goes 
out he is no more." I do not agree to this. Light 
is an effect of combustion ; so is the manifestation 
called life. But light is greater than oil, as spirit 
is greater than matter, or as motives are greater 
than acts. 



THE MIND. 6? 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE MIND. 



We have many so-called sciences of mind, promi- 
nent among which is phrenology. This is recognized 
as a science by most thinkers. The brain is recog- 
nized as the organ of the mind, and mind is treated 
as an entity — the Soul. I regard mind as the 
light of the soul. It is a something the soul has 
developed to enable it to come in contact with, and 
to handle matter. The idiot has no mind, but he has 
the power to suffer and enjoy. Now, it cannot logi- 
cally be held that sense is mind, or that instinct is 
mind ; infants have no mind, but they have the 
capacity to develop mind. Thus mind is a thing that 
grows and dies like a vegetable. Mind is a manifes- 
tation of the soul, composed of various powers or 
faculties. My mind is a machine I have made. It 
belongs to me, as my body or my coat belongs to me. 
It is my property. I may be robbed of it as I may 
be of my money. True ! When my mind is gone I 
am driven back, as it were, to a condition where 
sense remains, but memory, reason, judgment and 
will are not. 

Mind is to me what the rudder is to a ship. By 



68 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the use of it I sail my frail bark over the stormy seas 
of this life. Without it I am drifting like a piece of 
drift-wood wherever the waves toss me. As a man 
without property is considered nobody, so man with- 
out a mind is, in fact ', a cipher. 

As sense is the first manifestation of the soul, 
mind is the second, and the body is the third. But 
to observation the reverse seems to be true, inasmuch 
as the body seems first, mind second, and the soul — 
blank. 

/ Sense surrounds the soul as the atmosphere sur- 
rounds the earth, and constitutes a sensorium upon 
which all things are photographed, all sounds vibrated, 
all thoughts and emotions reflected. It is sense 
which separates things, holds each atom and each 
body in place, and establishes the relationship govern- 
ing. It is the sense of a thing which constitutes it 
a thing. Without sense things could not exist. 

Without feeling there is no contact ; without hear- 
ing, no sound ; without light, no colors, no beauty, no 
deformity. Sense does all things : it is God. The 
awakening of our dull senses is like unto an egg 
in incubation. The soul is the germ. The sense is 
the beautiful arrangement and adjustment of vital 
elements hermetically sealed up in a shell (body). 
Without this sealing up, this isolation or insulation, 
this partition between us and God, we could not 
exist. These bodies stand guard over our souls to 
preserve individuality. They are our preservation 
from the Infinite. The lightnings are chained 



THE MIND. 69 



down, bottled up, suspended in liquid form in the 
e gg> as fi re quenched by water in wood, coal, or 
storm-cloud. These bodies are important. Their 
quality varies, according to the power contained 
therein, as the shells of eggs vary. They subserve 
the end of solidifying the fire into organic life. When 
that is accomplished the shell becomes rotten, and 
the fully-developed chick works its way out, into a 
new life, or, rather, another stage of the same life, 
for there is only one life — the life of sense or of " 
God. 

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God." " The Kingdom of God " is only 
another and higher stage of life, and no man can 
enter it save through the gestation and birth of a 
Divine Body. 

Ah ! the mysteries of being. Thou insignificant 
egg ! Thou holdest in solution the incomprehensible 
mystery of God and eternity ! In thy darkened 
chambers God is waiting ! Thy spherical form speaks 
of revolution as the primal law of all being ! " Her- 
metically sealed " — so secure from curious eyes, so 
full of "the elixir of life," and yet so fragile ! Thou 
art the flame-tip liquefied ! Pure, beautiful thing ! 
Containing in thyself infinity, soul, mind, body and 
spirit ! What doth thy hatching signify if it be not 
immortality ? Thy wings speak of flight and liberty, 
thy lungs of inspiration, thine eyes of light, beauty, 
immortality and the beholding of it. Thy instinct 
speaks of intuition and all knowing ! Even the 



JO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

hovering of the Hen over thee typifies the " brood- 
ing" care, and life-giving power of the Holy Spirit ! 
Art thou evolved from the " black muck," thou pure, 
white thing? Can mud see, or can it make eyes 
like thine ? Can it think, or can it evolve a thought 
or a thing capable of thought, Or, rather, didst thou 
not descend, little chick — as descends the glory of 
the night — from the " mystery of the shadow " ? 

As an egg in incubation receives heat, first in the 
shell, and secondly in the albumen, so do impressions 
come to the mind through the body by contact with 
the outer world. The heat which causes growth of 
vegetation, animals and men comes from without, and 
it is through pressure, contact or impressions. Nature 
is to man what the hen is to the egg. Physical con- 
tact is required to warm up and influence things that 
have little sense ; but to those who have mind, there 
is a spiritual contact or impact, far more potent and 
far-reaching. 

It is considered that man has five senses : feeling, 
hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting. But I claim 
that there are many faculties of the mind, and only 
one sense. Sense is nearest the soul, the mind 
comes next. Through the mind the sense receives 
the fire which quickens the germ in the soul, or the 
egg. Sense may be said to be feeling. We see a 
lovely flower — we feel pleasure. If it be some hor- 
rible sight we are pained. We may see it at a 
distance, but the effect is the same. 

We come in contact with that which we see, hear 



THE MIND. 71 



and smell, as much as we do by taste or touch. We 
see sights that electrify us. We hear sounds that 
startle and urge us to action, as much as if we had 
been struck a blow. We come in contact with things 
and phenomena at a distance by sight and hearing, of 
things nearer by touch and smelling, but it is all 
feeling after all. The nerves of taste are only a little 
more acute than those of the hands. We smell the 
aroma of a rose, and we know it is near, although it 
may be hidden. We are in contact with the rose, 
for we have received something from it that has 
made an impfession upon us. Its spirit has met 
ours, and entering in, has added some fuel to the fire 
burning within. New combinations have been formed 
within us, and the rose has added its fire to ours. 

Our spirits glow with a purer light from the con- 
tact of love and beauty. All things grow by pressure, 
contact or impressions. The impressions we receive 
in our journey through life, from the gentle caress of 
love to the discord and clash of opposing conditions, 
are but for the reception of that Divine fire we 
worshipped in the past. 

"^-Each object we meet imparts its fire ; each ex- 
perience we have, from the joys of a mother's heart 
to the despair of the hopeless, is from the pressure 
mother nature gives, as she warms and hatches her 
brood. If we live properly we grow stronger and 
stronger in all that makes the true man, till the rot- 
ting shell (the body) bursts, and we fly away to 
realms of immortal life. 



72 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Pressure comes by attraction, and this produces 
growth by the gentle heat generated thereby ; but 
the contact which comes by force is from repulsion, 
and is death by conflagration. Fire struck out by 
force is destructive. By attraction we receive what 
we need, but by force more than we need, and often 
that which is sickening. 

Ask the pale, sickly mothers of th£ land if this is 
not God's truth ! There is a mental or spiritual con- 
tact of things, whose limit is unknown. It is not 
possible for us to think of a thing, principle or state 
of being that does not exist somewhere, within or 
without the domain of " nature." To think of a 
thing intensely is to see it in the mind ; and this sight 
is clairvoyance. 

To see a thing is to feel it ; this is contact, pres- 
sure, impressions. The pressure upon the brain of a 
thinker shows the power of thought and its contact. 
The pleasure he feels in giving birth to that which 
he hopes will do the world a great good, shows the 
baptism with fire of which we read in the Scriptures. 
~ Thought is the lightning's flash. It penetrates. 
It is the sunlight. It warms and gives color to life. 
It dwells in all things, for all things are suggestive of 
thought. They provoke us to think. If we will not^ 
think, they send the plague, the famine, and a slow 
decay. There are some rotten eggs in every nest. 
Thought calls us out from ourselves, from our knowl- 
edge of our weakness and follies — and then we are 
great. To dwell in thought among the stars is to be 



THE MIND. 73 



in contact with the Gods, and to receiver from them 
what otherwise we should not have. Thought is a 
stimulant : it intoxicates. To be drunk with thought 
is to provoke mirth, like any drunken man. 

The sun illumines a little space on the earth, but 
the darkness is before and behind, and all around. 
Like a coward it flees away as the sun approaches, 
and like a coward it follows close behind, as follows 
the past upon the present. 

We cannot stand still : we must move on. The 
little thought we have flashes out into the darkness 
before and behind. Memory looks back at the gloom 
of almost forgotten joys, and from the dim twilight 
of the past come the ghosts of evil deeds. Our 
weakness and follies appear gigantic. They are alive 
and active, but the little good we have done is 
scarcely perceptible — is feeble, is crowded back, like 
a small boy in a crowd. 

Thought flashes a ray of hope — of prescience ; 
and the world follows its light with a deathless trust. 
For it, they tax themselves to build churches and to 
support an army of priests. For this ray of light, 
this spark of Divine fire, they go hungry and in rags, 
patiently. Who shall say there is not a pressure 
here, a contact as close as that of matter, impressions 
that move the souls of mankind ? 

We gain knowledge, laboriously, in the collection 
of facts ; but these facts must be digested by the 
mind before they can be of use. Thought, reason, 
analysis, are the stomach of the mind. Here the fire 



74 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

is extracted from facts, as life is from food in the 
physical stomach. Doubt is indigestion. He who 
digests the facts and phenomena of life, and still 
doubts the immortality of man, has mental dyspepsia. 
He does not get the fire, and consequently his spiritual 
nature lacks warmth. 

* He who properly digests the facts of life grows 
warm and tender, and stronger in his trust towards 
others. He dreams of immortality, for its fact is 
impressed on his mind. In his dreams the mind 
becomes telescopic, and he sees that which the 
doubter scoffs at. But, nevertheless, he grows 
stronger and stronger in his belief. 

Long years ago I became very much interested in 
clairvoyance. I wished to attain the power. I read 
much and thought more. Sat in " circles/ ' used 
magnets, insulated stools, galvanic bandages ; in fact, 
exhausted all the methods within my reach, but with 
the exception of a few " clouds " and "flashes of 
light," my spiritual sight remained obscured. It was 
late one stormy night in winter, in the little cottage 
on the hill, overlooking "the father of waters," that, 
after having lain on a couch for an hour as usual, 
with a huge magnet in contact with my head, I re- 
tired to bed, feeling sad and low-spirited. I lay for a 
time listening to the moaning and wailing of the 
winds, and pondering upon the subject which at that 
time engrossed my entire being. All at once I be- 
came conscious of a presence in my room. It was 
intensely dark to the natural eye, but I saw clearly 



THE MIND. 75 



an old man, tall and majestic, with a lofty brow, 
deeply plowed with thought-lines ; mild, gentle expres- 
sion, long, white beard, and hair that fell on his 
shoulders. He held in his hand a brass rim, inclosing 
a circular glass. He held it up, and asked me to 
examine it. I did so and found it a mirror. He 
called my attention to the fact that it not only re- 
flected objects, but retained the images impressed 
thereon. "This, ,, said he, " is the human mind, 
which ordinarily has the power of reflection and 
retention " (memory). He then pressed his thumbs 
upon the glass holding the rim with his fingers. It 
sunk with much difficulty under the pressure to the 
depth of the rim. The glass then seemed a shade 
smaller, but was still inclosed as before by a brass rim. 
I looked in the dish-like mirror, and it seemed clouded ; 
and strange, fanciful objects flitted across its surface. 
Again he applied the pressure, and with some effort 
the disk became deeper. Again I looked ; the clouds 
had partially disappeared, and dimly seen, deep down 
in the mirror, as if in the far distance, a lurid light 
sent fitful gleams across the surface in the mirror. 
Said he : " The mind, like this mirror, has the power 
of elongation. Like this, the two first sections are 
very difficult to start ; but these accomplished, and 
the rest come easily." And he shoved rim after rim 
out to the number of seven, and then bade me look. 
I looked, and lo ! the wonders of the universe were 
revealed. The light was clearer than the brightest 
I ever saw. The ineffable glory of creative principle 



J 6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. * 

flashed like lightning upon my brain. I could not 
bear the steady flame, and turned my wondering eyes 
to the face of "the stranger." He smiled, and 
^/said : "The mind has a telescopic power, little known 
to mortals. When once attained, there are no secrets 
that may not be discovered/ ' And then he and the 
" Magic Mirror " were gone. But I have nor for- 
gotten the lesson. 

In these pages, if you can comprehend the ideas, 
you will find a verification of its truth, and the guide- 
posts on the road to power. We can never know a 
thing or principle except by contact therewith. Ideas 
grow in the mind as vegetation grows in the earth. 
Thoughts are the letters of a word ; the word is part 
of a sentence. A complete sentence or a combina- 
tion of incomplete sentences, contains an idea. 

The word is the beginning of speech, or the first 
materialization of an idea. Hence St. John says, 
"In the beginning was the Word/' Now we may-' 
think and think till we are exhausted, but if we con- 
ceive no idea, and think it out to a clear and perfect 
definition, it will do us no good ; it is like a plant 
struck by frost, or withered by drouth. But if, in our 
analysis of facts, we conceive an idea — - no matter 
how vague — and dwell upon it in thought, it gradu- 
ally takes form and grows to maturity. y 

Maturity is a perfected idea. When an idea is 
matured in the mind it enters into the soul, and be- 
comes an integral part of the thinker, and he is 
changed thereby. 



THE MIND. 77 



•/"We are changed by our thoughts. That which 
leads us upward towards the good is expansive ; 
hence, creative of power : but that which is debasing 
leads downward, and is contraction, hence destructive 
to power. The soul expands by fire, but contracts 
for want of it. Fire is power ; and weakness is for 
want of it. It will be seen from the foregoing that 
the mind occupies an important position. 

Everything that reaches the soul must pass through 
it in the form of ideas. For the soul is an idea itself, 
and nothing can enter the soul that is foreign to it. 
Fire is the spirit in which ideas reside. 

If man were natural, there could be no progress, 
for he would be in a state of indifference. But, being 
unnatural, he is progressive and intense — i.e., insane 
in his mind. The real appears to him as unreal, and 
the unreal as the real. From this cause he looks 
upon the body as the man, and the mind as the effect 
of the body — like "the blaze of a candle " — and 
laughs at the idea of a soul or spirit. This state of 
the mind is termed natural. I call it unnatural. But 
we cannot help being unnatural on account of our 
ignorance. Ignorance always blunders — weakness 
always falls. The first act of the natural was a fall, 
for he was ignorant. When fallen he struggles to 
stand erect, for he has knowledge of an erect posture. 
The unnatural is progressive. 

In the creation of man instinct was suspended by 
a reversal, or depolarization of it, in which it was dis- 
solved as it were and scattered, and became the seeds 



78 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

of many faculties. Each and every faculty of the 
mind has instinct as its foundation. This scattering 
or division of instinct may have been, and undoubt- 
edly was, a slow process, occupying many ages. 

Man is the only thing that comes into existence 
totally helpless, totally blank of intelligence : hence 
the death of instinct must have culminatad in his 
creation. 

The tossing waves of instinct, torn from the depths 
of creation's ocean, tossed to mountain heights, and 
beaten to froth, subsided in a great calm ! Anon, a 
breath of the Infinite fanned the great deep, and man 
sprang into being ! 

This calm is a great rest of nature as she gathers 
her forces for another effort : it is the soul as it 
expands ; the vacuum that provokes motion. The 
tornado was coming ; all nature held its breath in 
expectancy ! It came in the shape of mind. Ever 
since its advent there has been no more calm. From 
sun to sun, from star to star, from pole to pole, from 
centre to circumference, there is agitation. Nature 
seems torn from her moorings. Her steady and 
quiet ways seem broken in upon as by a God. She 
is all turned topsy turvy. And she, good dame, 
has joined in the mad revelry, as at her own nup- 
tials. Nature seems to have departed from her usual 
methods ; an innovation has been made, as if the 
absent Lord had returned, or a god had descended ! 
From this point — from this great calm, this rest and 
expansion, this birth — work is the law. The first 



THE MIND, 79 



effort was a failure because there was no guide, no 
knowledge. A failure ! Such a thing was unknown 
to nature. Astonished and bewildered, the soul^ 
shrinks and collapses in giving the awful thing birth ! 
A failure ! If being forced back from multiplicity to 
unity — if being compelled in a new creation to go 
back to the starting point — indifferent sense — to 
work outward again to multiplicity — if this be a 
failure, then man is a failure. And every man who 
weeps over the weaknesses, follies and sufferings 
of poor benighted humanity, recognizes it as such. 
Every man who has an idea of improving the race 
knows there is something wrong. 

But nature, like an over-indulgent mother, says to 
her child: "It is no failure, my child; try again/ ' 
And sinking herself in her great love for him, be- 
comes the involuntary powers of her child. For her 
spoiled child she bears patiently every abuse. She 
breathes for him while he sleeps. She labors as he 
directs ; while he, visionary that he is, is busy build- 
ing castles in the air. She walks, if he says walk ; 
he takes no thought of the distance or the steps : all 
he has to do is to direct her. If he fails to point the 
way, through forgetfulness, she goes astray, for she 
seems to be blind ; but she keeps on walking till he 
says stop. If, in his perversity, he takes up some 
habit that will eventually ruin him, she adapts herself 
to his whim, and carries it on without his volition, 
even to his death ; when he forgets it, she reminds 
him of it. In his sleep she still labors for him to 
V 



80 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

restore the waste of his unnatural life ; still whisper- 
ing, " Try again!' 

If he hates, she keeps it in his mind. If he re- 
solves to commit some crime, she assists him as 
readily as to do a good act, always whispering, " Try 
again'' 

<• If an incurable disease attacks her child, she fights 
for him while he directs, and in the manner that he 
directs, but when he loses control she joins forces 
with the adversary to hurry on the work of dissolu- 
tion. Even in death she reminds him of his habits. 
Nature seems to be a blind force, an indifferent thing; 
if it be a thing. She knows nothing, feels nothing ; 
she simply furnishes us with the power to think and 
feel, whispering, " Try again ! " 

It is no fiction, — the fall of man, — but it is an 
allegorical representation of a truth : or, in other 
words, the effort of a great mind to explain the life 
we live — the principles of being. The acts we do 
furnish the light of experience. The man who trusts 
in himself and walks out boldly gains the most. He 
who trusts in God, although the happiest, gains the 
least knowledge. If we fall and hurt ourselves, we 
have the freedom to climb up again. And though 
we may not climb back to the same place, we may go 
higher. 

Ever since the "fall," man has been scaling the 
precipices of his weaknesses and failures. The point 
I call your attention to is this : All acts have their 
beginning and inception in the mind. Hence all 






THE MIND. 8 1 



violations of law, with their attendant pain, disease, 
weakness, and death, spring from mind. All viola- 
tion is a creation. Hence all creation is a mental 
product. 

As acts flow from the mind, so matter flows from 
the mind ; for acts materialized are matter. This 
being so, the more Divine the mind is, the greater 
will its creative power be. The evolution of matter 
from itself having any quality or form, or the dissolv- 
ing of matter already formed, by the suspension of 
atomic laws, is logical, and within the range of man's 
power, as a Divine Being. ^As a creator, all creation 
is in his grasp, and he is therefore the architect of 
himself, and his heavens or his hells. The concep- 
tion of a thing is the beginning of its growth, Hell 
grows out of our minds : so also does heaven ; but 
hell is largest. So also a Divine body may be grown 
by conception, gestation and birth in the mind. 

Hell is fed by our desires to see our enemies suffer, 
and from a spirit of retaliation and revenge. 



82 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE QUARTERN ARY MIND. 

Having already defined the mind as light, it re- 
mains for us to define the different kinds of mind or 
light. 

There are four kinds of light : viz. — Rational, 
Irrational, Natural and Divine. 

Mind, being the light or torch of the Ego, man, is 
the means whereby he overcomes, subdues and appro- 
priates to himself, the wonderful things that are 
hidden in darkness. The first manifestation of the 
soul is heat. It emanates from the Ego within the 
soul and is therefore the beginning of sense, which 
consists of both emotion and intelligence. The whole 
temple of man springs from this source. This is the 
Divine mind, the first emanation of Love, the sen- 
sorium or aroma of the soul. The first effect of heat 
is to produce, in the surrounding darkness, an agita- 
tion or vibration corresponding to the twilight or child- 
hood of being, — the dawn of mind — nature — 
instinct. 

Heat produces motion, which is nature. The Divine 
mind is heat out of which springs a flame, — the 
natural mind. 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 83 

Imagine, if you can, a globe or hollow sphere, the 
centre of which is black, but which gradually becomes 
lighter outwardly till it becomes a glowing ball of red 
light which flashes tongues of flame inwardly as well 
as outwardly. This inward light is the rational mind, 
while the outward light is the irrational mind. 

As light radiates outward so does the natural mind 
grope for satisfaction in the surrounding mysteries. 
But the rational is an inward action of this mind 
toward the Divine mind, a union of intense thought 
— the heat of mind — with the heat or pulsations of 
sympathy. 

Rationality consists of intellect and love united, 
or reason and intellect united to justice, mercy and 
devotion. 

Spiritual mind or light is the inward far-flashing, 
flame-tip — the tongue of the serpent — which leaps 
up and destroys the darkness and ignorance that is 
within ourselves. 

Light is the combustion of darkness, whereby 
darkness, ignorance and mysteries are compelled to 
yield up heat and the inconceivable things hidden 
therein. 

The soul grows by feeding upon its discoveries, — 
and mind is that which discovers things. 

The natural mind is the common mind. It receives 
its impressions through the five senses ; or, in other 
words, wholly from external nature. To it belong 
observation, memory and reflection. All things of 
this mundane sphere reflect themselves upon the 



84 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

mind as in a mirror. This mind grows and expands 
by the collection of facts, but the conclusions of it 
are material as the facts themselves. For this reason 
the natural mind cannot conceive of a spiritual or 
future state of existence ; its utmost powers enable 
it only to reach the plane of knowledge, or the ma- 
nipulation of matter. The knowledge gained by it is 
the sciences and philosophy of material things ; it 
adapts man to this " bread-and-butter M life. Its 
analysis is destructive ; hence to it belong doubt, 
skepticism, unbelief, and the impossible ; pride, lust, 
hate, fear, avarice, deceit and invention are its con- 
trolling powers. The interior of this mind being 
closed up, there is no reflection from any other way 
than from without. The soul is denied, because it 
cannot be seen or handled ; its presence is unfelt, by 
reason of the hardness and opacity of this mind. It 
cannot feel from within, but is constantly drawn 
outward by sight, sound and contact. It is the 
" wide-awake " mind. Its highest faculty is the in- 
vention of machinery, building of railways, cities, etc. 
— all of a material character. But it is progressive, 
inasmuch as it expands by its stretch after the new, 
and its effort to perfect that which it conceives. 

Conception is always superior to the production. 
The true artist fails to come up to his ideal, because 
the colors in his mind are pure, while the colors of his 
picture, being a compound of matter, are dead. It is 
a mere material thing, void of soul. If he could, by 
looking at the canvas, project from his mind the 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 



picture he sees in his mind, project the colors from 
himself — without brush, paints or pencils — on the 
canvas, it would come up to his ideal. This power 
does not belong to the natural nor to the rational, 
but to the Divine Mind. 

The Divine mind does not exist to the natural 
mind, because it cannot come in contact therewith. 
The natural develops into the rational, which expands 
to the Divine. The natural, by expansion, opens the 
interiors, through which impressions come from the 
unknown. If these impressions are not rejected 
the mind becomes luminous. This illumination is 
rationality. Impressions from within awaken the 
mind as with a new life, and it gradually turns 
within — thus reversing itself. This is the begin- 
ning of magnetization, which is a turning inward of 
the eyes and the sight — the beginning of the glory. 

The natural may be compared to the flint, and 
objects to the steel. The fire struck out is a mere 
spark, which vanishes away and is lost ; but the 
rational is a steady flame, flowing from the Divine, 
making malleable and luminous the entire man. 
Seeds deposited in the earth first soften, then enlarge, 
before the germ can come forth. The natural mind 
is the seed planted in the soil of the body, but the 
rational is the tree ; the fruitage is the Divine ; which, 
indeed, grows not out of the ground, but descends, as 
the Spirit, to bless all who partake thereof. This is 
the bread that comes down from Heaven, of which if 
a man eat he shall not die. 



86 .THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

To the rational belongs the innocency of childhood, 
with its simplicity and credulity. Instead of sagacity 
there is intuition ; instead of deduction there are 
visions and revelations. One might naturally think 
that rationality came with age ; and so it would, if 
there was no retrogression. Our daily lives cloud the 
surface of the mind with a film, through which the 
flint scarce penetrates ; hence there is no fire evolved 
by the friction incident to this life. 

We become insulated during the mad rush for 
wealth, and the magnetism that gives growth and 
expansion passes by us. The real age and life of a 
man date from his conscious progress in the good 
and pure. The real death dates from the time one 
becomes conscious of being bad, and does not forsake 
his evil ways. There are some children who are 
older in soul-growth than some old men or women. 
There are some persons who retrograde from earliest 
childhood ; others progress for some years, then turn 
downwards ; others, again, are bad in early life, then 
suddenly, or slowly, turn to progress upward. We 
may pity the old person who is hard. Progress 
softens the mind, and thus the whole man expands. 

The Divine mind is first ; next is the rational ; the 
last and outermost is the natural. The natural cor- 
responds to matter, the rational to spirit, the Divine 
to soul. The Divine mind is the sensorium of the 
soul, which surrounds it as a translucent film, which 
expands and contracts. Attraction expands it ; re- 
pulsion contracts it. It is the sengorium that is the 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 87 

seat of consciousness ; the events of life are all pho- 
tographed upon it. All the emotions that are ex- 
perienced give color to it. The various strains of 
music and discord leave their impression on it. The 
voiceless universe affects it also. What we have 
been in previous states of existence is brought forward 
by the sensorium into this life ; and the sound of the 
voice, the build of the body, the facial expression, the 
laugh, the color of the eyes — all these, and more, 
tell what we have been doing, and what we have 
been in the long eternities of the past. 

Ideas are mental images of things of the soul, 
which are hidden in darkness, and are attracted from 
their hiding places by man's need of them. They 
are drawn forth by want, hunger, thirst, pain, desire, 
persistent thought or earnest questioning. They 
emerge slowly and stealthily from the secret recesses 
of the soul into the twilight of the mind and are there 
sensed rather than seen. Afterwards they may be 
seen imperfectly ; or, as Paul says, " through a glass 
darkly.' ' Because of the dull light of our minds, 
ideas become distorted in our reflections. We are in 
the/<?£* of past actions, and things appear reversed, as 
in a mirage. For this reason we get no absolute 
truth. Ideas are reversed and distorted from having 
been impregnated by the spirit of what has been. 

In the same manner spirit is changed into matter, 
and becomes part and parcel of these bodies. For 
instance, you have a wound ; the pain is a telegram 
to the sensorium of the soul ; the idea to restore, 



88 THE TEMPLE OF 7 HE ROSY CROSS. 

though unconscious to you, is immediately projected 
by the Ego into the sensorium, or Divine mind, where 
it is impregnated, and, descending, deposits life in the 
form of new matter in the wound. Thus are the 
injured tissues fed, like a child in embryo, till the parts 
are restored. But there is a decay of the injured 
parts before and during restoration. 

How tenderly and carefully we nurse and dress an 
ulcer, thus causing it to give way to new and healthy 
flesh. Matter is but spirit reversed. Substance is 
substantial ; it does not change, but spirit and matter 
do change places or condition in becoming reversed. 
The decayed matter of an ulcer is the return to spirit, 
and matter in formation is spirit condensing : which 
is effected by that third and incomprehensible thing 

— the soul. 

These material bodies are but an ulcer, so to speak, 
upon a Divine and substantial body, which the soul 
is striving to free therefrom. But in most of us this 
Divine part is destroyed, swallowed up, eaten through 
and through as by ulceration. The substance of the 
Divine body is an idea of it. Matter, without an 
idea, falls or lies dormant ; but with an idea it rises 
up and walks erect as man. Aye ! and with an idea 
of it he rises up to be a god. 

Ideas revolve in cycles of time as worlds . revolve 
in space. Hence, " there is nothing new under the 
sun." We get a glimpse of the Divine in childhood 
and in first love. But the fog soon — alas ! too soon 

— rises and obscures the sun. In the reversal of 






THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 89 

ideas the external, or the last, appears to be first* 
Causation appears on the surface of things, and life 
and mind seem as the effect of matter. 

Religious ideas are of the soul; its symbols — 
being projections thereof — are reversed images which 
the world worships. The esoteric is lost in the rub- 
bish of the exoteric, as the soul is lost in matter. 
But it flows on in cycles, vast in extent, and grad- 
ually works out of the rubbish, and asserts itself as 
miracle. The age of miracle is near at hand ! The 
cycle of the soul is nearly completed ! Already we 
can see the first dim twilight of the rising sun ! 

From the worship of the Divine — the one, the 
first mathematical number — we have gone down to 
the number nine in the absurdity of addition, and 
now in that constellation we worship many gods — 
our forefathers. But the absurd nine will pass 
away, and the next cycle will be the union of the 
Immortal 1 — symbol of creation and the beginning 
— with o (10) symbol of the soul. Thus we revolve 
in a numerical circle from one back to one again. 

The natural mind becomes the rational by a 
reversal of its light, that is to say, by an effort of 
the will, its light is turned inward instead of rushing 
outward ; and, instead of being absorbed in business 
or material pursuits, it engages itself in deep and 
persistent thought upon subjects difficult of compre- 
hension, such as pertain to progress, ethics, the re- 
lationship of things, self culture or spiritual matters. 
This concentration of thought increases the light of 



90 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the inner mind> whose tendency is toward the soul, 
where it comes in contact with the fire or spirit 
which emanates from the soul to make by its motion 
the flame or mind. Spirit is not light, but is that 
which makes light ; even as fire is neither combustion 
nor flame but that which produces both. The natural 
mind has to do only with matter and we are so fa- 
miliar with it that we think we know all about it ; 
yet, it is a fathomless mystery and an intangible 
abyss of which darkness is the mother. 

Who can feel darkness or grasp it with the hand ; 
yet it is as real as light which is said to create vegeta- 
tion. 

Creation is carried on upon sexual principles every- 
where. Darkness is feminine Spirit while light is 
masculine Spirit ; and both are formless and intan- 
gible. Light is forever impinging upon darkness and 
begetting itself therein as in a womb, to be there 
conceived, gestated and formed into material things 
both animate and inanimate. What is matter but 
darkness and mystery ? What truer synonym of 
ignorance have we than "dull dead matter "? Does 
not mind beget intelligence in ignorance ? 

It is a waste of words to argue that intelligence 
and ignorance are not beings, and therefore cannot 
beget and conceive as do animate, organized beings. 
The principle is the same in formless spirit as in 
forms : for, in spirit, essentials exist before forms 
appear, and spirit is both masculine and feminine, — - 
the Father and the Mother. 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 91 
7 

The motherhood of all creation is in the Night. 
She coquets with the day, alluring him with her half 
concealed voluptuousness, and coyly recedes as he 
becomes too familiar in his amorous advances ; when 
as she yields herself only partially to the glad sunrise, 
of the ugly, contrary thing, behold what beauties are 
born. . 

Things bathed in the night become receptive to 
the caresses of the king of light, and, under his 
influence, become pregnant and bear fruit. 

Every atom of matter glows with spirit, which 
emanates from itself as an aura, light or mind ; for 
all things are intelligent and speak to and influence 
other things. Birds and flowers have a language of 
their own. The clouds find voice and the solid 
rocks cry out against violence.-^ All things have, 
sleeping within, an intelligence which bursts into 
flame under violent motion. This flame is mind and 
every quivering atom of flesh has a flame of its own. 
As the air envelops the earth, so does mind cover 
the form :, to guard, protect and nourish it. 

Spirit is one and without form, color, sound or 
qualities of any kind; and, when divided, becomes 
positive and negative, active and passive, masculine 
and feminine or Light and Darkness, while the flame, 
mind, or fecundating principle bursts forth at the 
point of conjunction of the two. 

This fecundating principle is thought, — spiritual 
semen. Now bear in mind that the material con- 
junction of the sexes is merely a symbol or reflex of 



92 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the same spiritual conjunction whjch takes place in 
every one who loves and thinks. 7 Thought projected 
from the mind begets that which is desired, — if the 
thought reaches far enough. Such is the power of 
the natural mind that it leads the sight outward ; at 
least, we apparently think so in searching mentally 
for hidden things. 

It is hard to understand that distance and space 
are inward as well as outward, that the vital princi- 
ples of food and air are as much, or even more, in 
thought as in matter and that the digestion of food 
is simply a sexual embrace between force and matter, 
in which life is begotten by the former, conceived by 
the latter and born as are children, of the nature of 
both, — material and spiritual. The soul is sustained 
in the same manner as is the body ; that is, it 
breathes spirit outward while we think, for creation is 
material outwardly but spiritual inwardly. 

The out going breath of the Ego is spirit, and 
bears thought, which, returning circularly, begets in 
the soul that which is thought of or imagined. That 
which is begotten becomes part and parcel of the 
man himself both physically and spiritually ; while that 
which is conceived does not at once become conscious 
and may never reach that stage, as embryonic life is 
liable to miscarriage. 

On this planet life is begotten but is scarcely con- 
ceived ; and, as yet, is not at all gestated. 

The wondrous powers of the spirit have scarcely 
entered into the imagination of man. 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND, 93 

Spirit being mind, the creator, must contain within 
itself the essentials of all forms, prior to creation ; 
therefore every atom of matter is, in itself, latent 
light or fire, and, as everything has spirit within, the 
stamp of intelligence is upon it. 

Man creates by the power of his mind and by con- 
juring things from his own soul. 

The quarternary mind forms the universe, with its 
axis and the four points of the compass ; and with 
the blue dome of heaven surrounding, as its mirror, 
in which are reflected the things of spirit which 
are in the soul. 

The suns and worlds of space are but reflections 
of the spiritual things of the over-soul, of which the 
over-arching vault of heaven is a miniature. Do they 
not suggest eternal duration ? Is not reflected there 
also eternal organic life, a life, lying dormant in the 
soul of man, but ready to be conjured into flesh by 
him who- can truly project his thought persistently 
and far enough. 

Wherein lies the power of the hypnotist to cause 
his subject to see or feel that which is not ; and by 
what power was the staff of Moses transformed into 
a serpent before which Moses fled in terror. 

Thought is the projecting, controlling, creative 
power of spirit. By persistent, concentrative effort 
in the right direction, the mind becomes Divine in 
its creative power ; and man can be whatever he 
desires to be. It is all within him, waiting but the 
baptism of his thought. 



94 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

We speak of the mind as a thing, having an organ, 
the brain, and a location therein, but we know of no 
such thing. The mind may, and probably does, 
come to a focus in the brain as a great centre of 
perception ; but I have good grounds to maintain 
that it occupies every atom of the body — even to 
the toe-nails and hair ; and that it surrounds the soul, 
separating the spirit from it, and that it is the great 
laboratory of the Infinite, in which spirit is trans- 
formed, and matter receives its quickening power, 
and is transfigured, transposed, or rendered up to the 
Infinite as an incorruptible substance. 

Jesus was in possession of the Divine mind. It 
was not possible for Him to be sick, to suffer pain, 
or to die, save as He willed it. He did not die, only 
in appearance ; neither did His body ascend, only in 
appearance, but was transposed. This transposition 
is a vanishing away out of sight. Read of the trans- 
position of Philip, in Acts viii. 39-40. 

Andrew Potts, of Harrisburg, Pa., told me — and 
the same was corroborated by several truthful men 
who witnessed it — that he vanished out of the sight 
of his friends at the depot, when they were about to 
take the cars for a town six miles down the road, and 
that when the cars arrived at that station he was 
already there, talking with a friend who was waiting 
for the train to escort the friends to his house. 

Jesus' life and death was to show mankind that he 
was the same as they, and to show them the possi- 
bilities of human nature. A teacher, to be accepta- 



THE QUARTERNARY MIND. 95 

ble, must not be too far removed from his pupils. 
Had Jesus manifested the powers of a God, vanished 
from the cross, etc., He would have converted the 
Jewish nation in a day, and they would have wor- 
shipped Him as God. But what good would that 
have done ? Lo ! the world has been worshipping 
Gods for countless ages, and some portion has been 
worshipping Jesus ever since His crucifixion, but 
what good has it done ? 

The Doctrines of Jesus are sublime in their truth 
and simplicity — but very much, of the most value, 
has never been penned. It has been urged against 
him that he taught that which, if practiced, would 
subvert civilization. On the contrary, it would 
redeem mankind from barbarism and idolatry, and 
make men civilized in place of semi-savage. "Greater 
works than these shall ye do, because I go to the 
Father.'* "By their fruits shall ye know them." 
"These signs shall follow those that believed Who 
believes ? 



g6 THE TEMPLE OE THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GENERATION OF MIND. 

It is the weakness of matter which compels it to 
lie dormant and still in one place ; this it is which 
causes it to fall down when not supported. Gravita- 
tion is only another name for weakness. So it is 
with mind. That which is under law is weak, and 
the more materialistic the mind is the weaker it is, 
and the more bound by law. 

Mind is law, but the thing moved and governed is 
matter. To fulfill the law, then, is to perfect the 
mind, and the matter under it ; for law makes mat- 
ter, and imparts every quality to it — motion, weight, 
buoyancy, etc. 

To the perfected mind all mundane things are under, 
or inclosed in it, as a large circle incloses smaller 
ones. There is no such thing as perfecting nature — 
it is already perfect. Neither can an imperfect thing 
generate a perfect thing. The imperfect changes by 
rising up to, and receiving the perfect within itself. 
Thus the wise man works through nature, not 
against it ; and mastering its modes, methods, laws 
and minds, transcends them all; and looking back, 
becomes a spectator rather than an actor. 



GENERA TION OF MIND. 97 

This is the fulfillment of law, or in other words, 
the being filled full of mind. For as we ascend in 
the scale of power, we become more and more in- 
volved, or enveloped in mind, which, penetrating 
through and through, illuminates the spirit, and gives 
buoyancy and fluidity, or malleability, to the matter 
composing the body ; thus connecting it with other 
matter, to influence, control, mould and fashion it for 
use, as one uses his hands. 

In order to pass from one nature, or mode of ex- 
istence, into another, generation and birth are neces- 
sary. This involves a sleep. The spirit worlds are of 
this nature. In order to go beyond them — to the 
realm of absolute power, the germs of the mind must 
be ripe. We are here for the purpose — some of us, 
at least — of generating mind ; not merely to spend a 
few years in amassing wealth, or in toiling to support 
bodies. 

Those in whom the mind is not half generated 
remain in this nature to try it over and over again. 
Unripe germs will not grow. To pass into the 
nature or " Kingdom of God" a regeneration is neces- 
sary, because it is an incomprehensible nature to this 
finite mind — hence the entire man must be re-made. 
The body is of no account. Mind is that which 
determines. Some minds are of no account. Fate 
determines. 

The truly generated mind may, and does, regen- 
erate the man, and endow him or her with super- 
natural power and immortal life, here on this earth. 



98 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

That which ensues at the death of the body is simply 
generation, and not a regeneration ; for in the regen- 
eration the body is changed in quality consciously, 
by the joining to it of the Divine Mind. There is no 
sleep or trance in this ; it is effort ; not physical, but 
mental effort, in the destruction of things that disturb 
the harmony. 

There are many enemies to human progress, promi- 
nent among which are the following of a downward 
or retrogressive series, which are antagonized by an 
upward or progressive series. They may properly be 
termed Powers — one of Light, the other of Darkness. 

POWERS OF LIGHT. POWERS OF DARKNESS. 

( i. Revelation. ( i. Ignorance. 

( 2. Joy. | 2. Sorrow. 

( 3. Temperance. ( 3. Intemperance. 

( 4. Continence. ( 4. Concupiscence. 

( 5. Justice. ( 5. Injustice. 

( 6. Communion. ( 6. Covetousness. 

( 7. Truth. ( 7. Deceit. 

\ 8. Good. \ 8. Envy. 

( 9. Light. ( 9. Fraud. 

( 10. Life. ( 10. Wrath. 

— Hermes. 

Revelation may be known by its imparting a great 
satisfaction, rest, or joy to man. Joy is prolific, since 
it is the feminine of ideas. As Revelation drives 
away ignorance, so joy drives away sorrow — or pre- 
pares the mind to resist sorrow, and to be self-sus- 
taining in its completeness — to stand calm and 
tranquil amid life's changing scenes, and be content 
and happy despite adversity. 



GENERATION OF MIND, 99 

Temperance in all things is revealed as the source 
of health, and immediately is seized upon by the 
mind, and when it has grown apace, Continence, the 
feminine of it, is evolved. And they two drive away 
Intemperance and Concupiscence. 

When this is accomplished the mind is as clear as 
a polished mirror. The turbid waters of selfishness 
and lust have subsided, and Justice y stripped of vin- 
dictiveness, stands revealed as mercy, and becomes 
the ruling power of the mind. Then comes Com- 
munion, the feminine of Justice, and Injustice and 
Covetousness flee away. There is now no feeling of 
"mine and thine " left in the mind. All things are 
pure and all things are common. The communion of 
the sexes, of races, of spirits, angels, and Gods, is 
effected, and the mind trembles with its fullness upon 
the confines of absolute truth or oneness of being. 

The soul has now ascended to the seventh sphere, 
and is pregnant with male and female twins — " the 
Truth of Good, and the Good of Truth," which in due 
time are born into the conscious mind, whereupon 
deceit and envy take their departure. In the light 
of truth all distinctions and differences disappear, and 
all things are good. 

But this light reveals another light — dimly seen 
at first — far away upon the backgrounds of the soul, 
fitful and fleeting, obscured by passing shadows, it 
grows brighter and comes nearer — an immortal light 
in the centre of which is the germ of another life — 
of an immortal substance called " the Tree of Life. ' 
LofC. 



100 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

It slowly enters into the mind, and descending from 
thence enters into and transforms the changeable 
matter into a substance at once homogeneous and not 
particled. The man is no longer in light and in life, 
but light and life are in him. 

The Infinite is no longer without and far away, but 
it is within ; not divided and separated from, but the 
integral part of all being, tangible, visible and intel- 
ligible. The impossible does not belong to this life, 
and flees away upon its approach, or is not. 

The darkness and ignorance which form the back- 
ground of the soul, in which we are hidden from our- 
selves, has been withdrawn, and we are revealed as 
the Over-soul itself, containing all life and forms 
within. We are no longer involved in law or mind, 
for we contain all of these, and are conscious thereof. 
And we use them as we now do our hands and feet. 

Man is master of all his soul embraces. This is the 
proper generation of mind, wherein the body and 
spirit are regenerated. To such, death is not, for 
death is a weakness. The intuitions of a ripened 
mind are as broad and deep as the universe, but those 
of a small or an unripe mind are weak and shallow. 

Hence the necessity of mental culture — not in the 
acquisition of earthly knowledge, but in the effort to 
grasp creative power — philosophy, astronomy, etc., 
in their broadest and deepest aspects. Philosophy is 
the highest of all studies. It wings the soul. 

Truth is so little known that it is folly to waste 
words in argument ; but speculate, think, entertain 



GENERATION OF MIND, IOI 

and master all ideas thereto ; imagine, grasp at the 
Infinite Mind, and bring it into yourself, for in the 
effort the mind expands, stretches out and grows. 
What if you accept an error to-day ? You can change 
your opinion to-morrow ! Above all things beware of 
fossilization. 

Had Jesus healed the whole world in a day, it 
would have been sick again in a few weeks, if not 
days. He did not teach worship, but manhood, as a 
Divine thing. He taught salvation as flowing from 
works, and not from his merits or blood, or from the 
worship of him, or anything else but principle. He 
taught the influence and value of belief ; and also of 
several kinds of baptism — of water, of fire, and of 
the Holy Ghost ; and also of a baptism which he 
should undergo at his death. 

We are left to conjecture what baptism he meant 
when he said, " He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved," etc. (See Mark xvi. 16, 17, 18.) 
But we are not left in doubt in regard to its being 
the baptism with water, for the Christian world has 
been " sprinkled," " poured," and " plunged" in water 
for eighteen hundred and eighty-two years ; and where 
are the "signs" he said should follow as an evidence 
of salvation ? 

He said he was the bread of life; to eat thereof 
was to be immortal. Now, the truth is, he was teach- 
ing the same thing I am trying to illustrate, and his 
ignorant apostles, or some one else, have got it mixed 
up and distorted, in order to deify him. He said the 



102 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

bread of life came from heaven ; and also that " the 
Kingdom of God is within you." He also spoke of 
another birth, and of sight, as a result of that birth. 
Baptism with water is a symbol of purification in order 
to the reception of another Baptism, viz., that of fire. 
The Baptism with water is typical of the softening and 
the making tender (as a seed) the natural mind, so 
that it may expand or revolve in its growth towards 
rationality. The softened, tender, sympathetic, open- 
ing mind, inhales the fragrance of another life, and it 
buds, blossoms and bears fruits which are a blessing 
to all. Its blossoms are a sight of the kingdom of 
God, and its fruit is the entering into the spirit of all 
truth, and the birth of a Divine Body, indestructible 
and eternal. 

Bathing assists the will in the healing of the body, 
and in the subduing of the heat of passion. Water 
opens the pores of the body — belief opens the mind ; 
the first for the reception of magnetism (spirit), the 
latter for the reception of ideas, which are, indeed, of 
the soul (Holy Ghost). 

This is the building up of a divine body of a super- 
natural substance, from the atmosphere of a thought- 
world. We need not die, if we only know how to 
live. But what can we say of a world of men who 
think of nothing but vanity, and concerning the 
serious part of life hire their thinking done ? The 
thoughts doled out from millions of pulpit-grinders 
every seventh-day are but the effluvia of the past, the 
exhalations of the dead ; what kind of substance do 



GENERATION OF MIND. 103 

they furnish for a dying world ? Is this the " bread 
of life " ? Is there a spark of original fire in it ? 

He who depends upon books for his inspiration is 
but an exhumer of the dead. The heavens are as 
open to-day as when Isaiah, gazing aloft, said, " Lo, I 
am God ! and I change not ; therefore, ye sons of 
Jacob, are ye not devoured." The same power is 
waiting for us to reach up and take that existed in 
the olden time for him they nailed upon the cross. 
The tables of the Infinite are spread and loaded, but 
no one will be compelled to partake. Help your- 
selves, is the universal law. 

At the tomb of Lazarus, in view of a body lying 
stark and dead, with the smell of death, and the 
mould of the grave on his pallid lips, with eyes that 
gazed the Infinite out of countenance with their un- 
flinching audacity, He of the magic Will said, " If a 
man believe in me he shall not die." Did he mean 
physical death ? Most assuredly he did. Take this 
as corroborative : in speaking to the Jews at another 
time he said, " Your fathers did eat manna in the 
wilderness, and are dead ; but I am the bread of life 
which came down from heaven, of which, if a man 
eat, he shall not die," meaning the same death the 
fathers died in the wilderness, viz. : physical death. 
And yet, in the face of these positive declarations of 
the Inspired One, the pulpit organs grind out a spirit- 
ual explanation. They make Jesus' work apply to a 
future state, when he intended it wholly for this life. 

The Hermetic Philosophers, the Alchemists, and 



104 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the Rosicrucians, have all believed in and taught the 
doctrine of eternal youth, and sought for the "phi- 
losopher's stone," and the " elixir of life;" and Jesus 
taught that life was within the Kingdom of heaven, 
which " is within you ; " and laid the foundation-stone, 
Belief. 

The fakirs of India cause a shrub to grow out of 
the ground, blossom, bear its fruit, and ripen it, all in 
one short hour. And it is no phantom fruit, for it is 
passed around and divided among the bystanders, who 
eat thereof. Scores of travelers have witnessed this 
feat, and many have written of it, but my authority 
is a gentleman of veracity who was born and reared 
in India. It is done under circumstances which 
utterly preclude the idea of jugglery or trick of any 
kind. They know and say it is the power of the will 
that does it. But there is no growth to their power. 
Why ? Because they have no higher ideas of human 
powers than the manipulation and production of 
things. They are not a progressive people. They 
are at their highest point. It remains for the Anglo- 
Saxon race to go higher ; for it is a higher race. 

Jesus said, " Greater works than these shall ye do, 
because I go to the Father." And it would have 
proved true had they made the conditions. It re- 
mains for us to make the conditions, which are, to 
work for that baptism with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire, viz. : the union of spirit and soul. Water makes 
the body soft, tender and pure. Baptism is to be 
submerged, swallowed up in the spirit, which is the 



GENERATION OF MIND. 105 

beginning of a new life with wondrous powers, gen- 
erative of new matter — a divine essence, superior to 
death and dissolution, which in appearance resembles 
this body, but which, in fact, is not mortal. 

It was this body which Jesus, Moses, Elijah, 
Philip, Enoch and several Rosicrucians of the 
olden time are reputed to have had. This was why 
Jesus said, " I will lay my life down ; you cannot 
take it." This Divine body may die, if corrupted by 
the desire to die. Thus St. John could live, notwith- 
standing he was plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil, 
till he desired to die. The Divine body is not a 
spiritual body, hence it is no apparition, or material- 
ized form, dependent upon a medium and conditions. 
It is totally subject to the will, and as it is projected 
from the mind, it may be drawn back into the mind 
again, and thus disappear. Or it may change and 
become some other form. This was why the Disci- 
ples failed to recognize Jesus on the way to Emmaus. 
" He appeared to them in another form/' says Mark. 
But when he had blessed the bread and broke it, he 
was himself again, they recognized him, and then he 
disappeared. 

At another time he stood in their midst, and as 
they doubted, he said, " Feel my flesh and bones, for 
ye know a spirit hath not flesh and bones. ,, The 
doctrine of the metempsychosis of the soul is as true 
as it is old. All things are in the divine mind, and 
are projections thereof by Divine Will and Love. 
Hence, man, when he rises to the Divine, has the 



106 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

same powers, so far as he is concerned, as an indi- 
vidual. Thus, he may clothe the naked, feed the 
hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, walk upon the. 
water, still the tempest, or visit the GoD-worlds at 
will. 

When that good time comes we will not need to 
take thought for to-morrow. Then we can " give to 
every one that asks," and "he that would borrow " 
we need not "turn away." Then "whatsoever ye 
shall ask shall be granted/' not because ye ask in 
anybody's name, but because then we may say with 
Jesus, "I and my Father are one." Then there 
shall be no high and no low, but as brothers we shall 
dwell together, and the nations shall learn war no 
more. Then shall " the lamb and the lion lie down 
together/ ' and " the knowledge of the Lord cover the 
earth as the waters the great deep." Then good-bye 
to mammon and to a civilization whose glory is " an 
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth/' — "whoso 
sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
shed/' 



THE IRRATIONAL MIND. 107 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE IRRATIONAL MIND. 

Reason is rationality and irrationality is the defi- 
ciency thereof, is small, narrow, contracted, deficient 
in brilliancy, void of charity, envious, jealous, covet- 
ous, full of censure, blame and fault-finding, ready 
to condemn and to believe ill of others, egotistical, 
vain, proud, selfish and void of sympathy, quick to 
judge but void of justice : these qualities and many 
more, show the clouded mind and soul, in which the 
great God hides his face and turns his back upon 
heaven. 

Reason is not a product of nature nor of the 
natural mind, since it does not enter into man 
through the physical senses. It is in the action of 
the will that the Supernatural meets man and becomes 
man by transforming the natural mind first into the 
rational then into the Divine. 

No man can ascend unless thought lift him up. 
One can ascend on the thought of another, only by 
reaching up and grasping such thought, and making 
it his own. This is a lifting of the eyes heavenward, 
to examine the self who stands in the way, shutting 
out the rational light. He who is fully rational, un- 



108 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

derstands all things, which consist first of all of self- 
knowledge or the knowledge of God ; since He is in 
the shadow of things, and is only found by passing 
them by. That light is a weak light which reflects 
objects only. It is the irrational mind, which is on 
the surface, stupid and insensate ; while the X-Ray 
light, which penetrates and reflects formless princi- 
ples, combining them into forms of beauty and use, 
is Divine reason, which descends from the soul 
only in answer to effort of will, and elevates man to 
meet it in Rationality. 

How natural for light to flow outward. To cause 
it to flow inward is supernatural — or a work against 
nature. 

Oh, how we love "the babbling brook," the green 
trees, the fragrant flowers, the majestic hills, the 
far-stretching landscape, the soothing hum of insect 
life, the woodland songs of the feathered hosts, the 
shout of merry childhood, the rhythm of machinery, 
the tread of busy feet, the rush and roar of business : 
all these things have a deathless fascination for the 
natural mind, to lure its flames outwardly to the for- 
getting of an inward flame and the lesson these things 
are designed to teach. 

We forget ourselves in this out-reaching flame 
and, falling down in abject worship of things, — learn 
nothing. Youth departs and beauty fades. Are 
they worthless then ? Are these worldly, sensuous 
things to be ignored and treated as false? By no 
means. They are created by something ', and if ere- 



THE IRRATIONAL MIND. IO9 

ated things are beautiful and valuable, how much 
more beautiful and valuable must be the Creator, than 
the things he has made. 

In the contemplation of loveliness, the Creator of 
all beauty and grandeur is stirred in the soul to 
create loveliness of character and expression in the 
one who contemplates. And in like manner will He 
create pain and deformity in him who, in thought, 
dwells among unlovely things and acts irrationally. 

The things in which the natural mind delights, are 
for use ; and they should not become rivals of the 
Creator in the worship and thought which we give 
them. 

The natural mind scatters thought, force, life and 
energy upon the things which very soon fade and 
lose their loveliness in life, and man passes away with 
them as a dream passes. 

The constant contact of the natural mind with 
trifles, speedily dulls the brilliancy of its light, till it 
changes into dull and criminal irrationality, the ex- 
treme of which is insanity. 

Self, the center of being, is a necessity which 
man cannot ignore and of which he cannot "let go : " 
yet, as an excess of self-consciousness is weakness, 
the further he removes his consciousness from the 
self, the greater he becomes and the more power he 
possesses. The more one lives in others, the greater 
and more rational he becomes ; because reason con- 
sists of relationship. "To do as you would be done 
by/' is true relationality. 



IIO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Shrewd business intellect is in no sense reason. 
The accumulation of wealth is irrational, inasmuch 
as it is done at the expense of others and of a personal 
loss of love in the one who so accumulates. To lose 
love is to lose the soul. 

The outer, extreme, projecting flame of the nat- 
ural mind, the plotting, scheming, over-reaching 
thought, is but an impermanent thing, — a flame 
which dies of its own force, — which discovers noth- 
ing in nature, nor in itself, save that which increases 
crime and misery, — and produces only physical 
things beautiful and fascinating for a moment, as 
inventions and labor saving machinery which in- 
crease wealth, and build palaces for the rich but turn 
the poor out of doors and make tramps and slaves of 
skilled workmen. This is the work of the irrational 
mind ; while the inner flame of the same mind, which 
is the persistent thought of the true value and re- 
lationship of things and of a higher manhood, carries 
with it a high and noble, — because unselfish, — 
motive that regulates all acts. This creates a moral 
nature, a nature of mercy, charity and justice, free 
from pride and vindictiveness, whose elongated 
flame, far flashing and brilliant, made telescopic by 
effort of will, dispels the darkness of the inner man, 
and reveals as the crowning glory of true manhood, 
the Divine reason, that light of rationality which 
spans the universe. 

This inner force of mind is a restraining power 
which holds in check the outer or aggressive tendency 



THE IRRATIONAL MIND. Ill 

of man's savage wildbeast nature ; and, in the hush 
and silence of contemplation, creates pity, — the 
great civilizer of the race. 

Pity is not a mental characteristic, it is of the 
soul, — the messenger which carries telegrams be- 
tween man and his Maker. 



112 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER X. 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 



According to the Christian religion belief is the 
fundamental principal of salvation. The blood of 
Christ affects no one who does not believe. 

If this is true, it is a fact in the nature of man and 
will apply to all the walks of life. Belief is the work 
of the sinner ; he alone can " believe unto salvation ; " 
no one can believe for him, consequently he saves 
himself. " The saving grace," — that which saves, — 
must enter into the sinner and transform his nature, 
in order that he can be saved. — Saved ? From 
what. From darkness, — from the ignorance in our- 
selves ? No one does wrong who knows the future 
and its penalties. It is the uncertainties of the fu- 
ture which cause unbelief on the one hand and 
belief on the other : and the experiences of life dem- 
onstrate that ills and misfortunes come from the 
mismanagement of ignorance, while right management 
is itself a providence flowing from effort of the will, 
the will being urged to action by belief or confidence 
in self power to overcome difficulties and misfortunes. 
We are tempted into wrong doing by belief and we 
do right from the same impulse : so belief is the guide 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 113 

in whichever course we take. It expands the soul 
and is an invitation for that which is believed in to 
enter and become part of us. In this manner do we 
become as we believe, and inasmuch as the Christ 
spirit is light, those who really believe in him, re- 
ceive that spirit into their souls, to become illumi- 
nated and quickened by life and light to the overcoming 
of darkness, and the utter destruction of disease and 
death. " And these signs shall follow those that 
believe " etc. (see Mark for the last words of Jesus, 
uttered after his crucifixion). 

But this doctrine of Belief is not accepted since 
none believe. Belief is but one side of the mind, — 
the light side ; the dark side being unbelief. Light 
impinging upon darkness produces another light — a 
twilight — in which truth and error are strangely 
mingled, in which the mind lacks luminosity, and the 
body lacks the life that Jesus referred to, as being 
deathless. Men pretend to believe but they do not. 
Pure belief has no shadow of Doubt in it. It contains 
no disturbing elements. It is a rest of the soul be- 
yond all comparison. It is the " Samadhi " of the 
Buddhistic cult, which is a state of calm tranquillity 
of mind that cannot be disturbed. This state is 
reached by belief in, and persistent practice of cer- 
tain rites — exercises or want or exercises — both 
mental and physical. 

Jesus based salvation upon belief and action, this 
action consisting of the giving of one's property and 
spirit to one's enemies and to the poor and the sick. 



114 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Said He : — " give to every one that asks of thee, 
and he that would borrow of thee, turn not thou 
away : " and, " go sell what thou hast and give it to 
the poor and come and follow me," These are His 
guides of action, but who believes in them. More- 
over, He warned His apostles against public prayer 
and ostentatious giving of alms ; but who pays any 
attention to these sayings. Yet they are the very 
vitals of the Christian cult, the means whereby one 
may reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and God within 
the human soul, and demonstrate one's presence there 
by healing the sick, casting out Devils and raising 
the dead. 

The fact is plain enough. The people do not 
believe these things : then who is able to judge of the 
power of Belief. 

Belief is the dividing line between right and wrong 
action. Wrong action is that of retaliation or of 
force — that of " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a 
tooth," — " blood for blood," not that of returning 
good for evil or of non-resistance. 

He who believes in the right way, walks therein, 
and his way is the upward way, the way in which 
Spirit needs neither bibles nor text-books. 

Leaving Christianity out of the question and tak- 
ing a materialistic view of ourselves, we find that we 
are involved in experiences from the dawn to the end 
of our mundane career, and must perforce travel up 
or down ; and, whichever way it is, it is the ego 
which suffers and enjoys. There is no certainty in 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 1 1 5 

knowledge of any kind. We do not actually know 
ourselves, we only think so, and the nearest we can 
approach thereto, is a belief in ourselves. 

We believe in the uncertain and the unknown. If 
we knew, actually knew, anything, we would have no 
belief at all, since knowledge would fill the whole 
soul and the end would be. Knowledge, absolute 
and certain, does not admit of a future, but Belief 
does, thus giving rise to Hope, which anchors the 
soul. 

The experience of pleasure causes belief in life, 
but pain makes one doubtful, wavering and uncertain, 
destroying hope. 

Belief is of the soul, the mother of confidence and 
repose ; but doubt arises from a failure to understand, 
which is of the mind, the principle of unrest, dissatis- 
faction and pain. Belief leads to truth which all 
love. 

That a man cannot believe except from evidence, 
is true ; but one man receives evidence from without, 
while another feels it within. We cannot accept a 
thing as true except it be in harmony with our inmost 
feelings. He who really believes in God believes in 
his own power to become Godlike ; but he who 
believes in the devil knows of him, for he feels him 
within. 

We all instinctively believe in that which we love. 
Mental assent is no belief ; it may be forced out by 
fear, or love of appearance, or popularity, or gain, but 
the real belief is what we live. In view of this, Paul 



Il6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

says, "As a man thinketh, so is he." Belief is the 
fundamental principle of soul-growth. The credulous 
man stands higher spiritually than the incredulous. 
Why ? Because all growth and real power depend 
upon the absorption of Divine fire, and belief opens 
the pores. 

All magnetizers are aware that belief and fear 
cause receptiveness. Fear is based upon belief. The 
belief in the " harmful Gods " has diseased mankind 
through the cold, malarial influence of fear. We do 
not fear that which we know ; it is the unknown we 
dread. True belief also gives hope, and hope casts 
out fear and imparts cheerfulness. Belief in that 
which we fear is not a belief, but an apprehension 
that the thing threatened, though unknown, may be 
true. This apprehension or fear creates a trembling 
and quaking as of an ague. It is disease. 

He who believes in himself reposes in himself, and 
achieves success ; but he who doubts himself is afraid 
of his shadow, and achieves nothing. Achievement 
is the acquirement of knowledge — as riches. But 
he who achieves nothing, knows nothing, and is poor ; 
hence, he is dissatisfied with himself and others. He 
who knows least of himself trusts himself the least, 
and is afraid and doubtful. As of himself, so of 
others. We judge others by ourselves. 

He who has the most trust and confidence in 
others has the best and highest knowledge — first 
of himself, secondly of others. He who knows the 
most of money knows the least of mankind. He 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 1 1 7 

trusts money, but not manhood, for his knowledge 
leads him to distrust mankind. Knowledge gives 
confidence or destroys it. Woe be to him whose 
knowledge diminishes his trust. Remove the little 
confidence we have in each other, and all friendship 
and sociability would cease. Nations and governments 
could not exist, and progress would be at an end. 
Confidence is the diviner part of us. It is the child- 
nature — that which is " of the kingdom of heaven." 

Woe to him who has little or no confidence in 
mankind, for he has none in God. Sleep is sweet to 
the trustful soul, for God dwells within, and bars the 
door of darkness through which devils creep when 
we are off our guard. I have heard men boast of 
their doubts, of their unbelief and incredulity. But 
to me it is an evidence of smallness of mind. Reli- 
gion has become the laugh and grimace of the world, 
by reason of the want of comprehension of its vota- 
ries, and of the unbelievers. 

He who worships symbols is an idolator, and rightly 
provokes the mirth of others ; but there is something 
sublime in principles which always commands respect. 
The underlying principle of all religion is the same, 
and is as old as humanity. True, out of this principle 
— this fire-faith of the olden time — have grown up 
dwarfed and hideous forms of religion, at war one 
with the other, as man wars with man, or nation 
against nation. But the principle is still Divine, and 
universally breathes of the brotherhood of man, and 
the Fatherhood of God. 



Il8 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Who is there who, in contemplating the wonders 
of creation, has not felt the leaping of flame thoughts, 
as if in rapture — the kindling of a divine fire within 
that leaped and glowed with a fervent heat, melting 
our hardness of nature, our skepticism and unbelief 
in the wisdom of creative genius ? Ah ! who has not 
gone hence from this closet of worship feeling like a 
coward, humbled and weak as the publican and sinner 
who smote upon his breast, and cried, " Father, for- 
give me, a sinner ! "■ I repeat, it is the small-minded, 
weak man, who quenches the fires of his own soul 
by his doubt and skepticism. 

To gaze aloft at the stars and rear not out of your 
own soul a spiritual temple of principles for the guid- 
ance of life's actions — for the use of mankind — and 
instead, only spend our time in tearing down the 
house wherein our neighbor worships, is unworthy of 
manhood. Power is that which builds anew— not 
that which destroys. It takes genius to build an 
edifice, but a rat might undermine and topple it to 
the ground. 

In proportion as we know a person to be truthful 
do we trust ; the love for truth is natural ; and it is 
our nature to believe in truth ; and whenever we find 
it, we trust it, and hope for its increase and per- 
petuity ; and when we know of it we love it, and 
will its spirit to be ours. Belief, hope, knowledge, 
trust, love and will, are all of kin to truth, and he 
who cultivates these graces shall yet be filled with 
righteousness. 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 119 

In proportion as I believe a thing do I hope for 
its truth. In proportion as I believe in others do I 
hope for their health and prosperity. We rest in 
our hopes. The grave looks less desolate to the 
hopeful soul. Cheerfulness and smiles are hope's 
children. The unbelieving are the hopeless and the 
dissatisfied, he who believes in nothing, hopes noth- 
ing ; the hopeless are the desperate. Which road 
will you follow, dear reader, for the truest knowl- 
edge ? Do doubts and skepticism stand in your way, 
and choke and strangle belief ? Destroy them, then, 
by not paying attention to their croaking. Forget 
your doubt by keeping in your mind and constantly 
before your eyes that which you love, or that which 
you would like to believe in and be. It is by the 
attention we bestow upon little things in the mind 
that makes impassable mountains of them ; forget, or 
refuse to behold them, and they become mole hills. 
\ Have you an enemy — one whom you can scarce 
endure ? You know no good of him. This feeling 
does not make you happy — better destroy it speedily. 
Visit him in his prosperity and in his affliction fre- 
quently ; talk with him ; interchange ideas with him ; 
enter into his life-plans and hopes. In process of 
time you will find some weakness in him that will 
arouse your pity, which is not far from friendship. 
The ingredients necessary for success in this is, first, 
a desire on your part to bring about the result, if for 
nothing else than your own peace of soul ; second, a 
belief in your ability to accomplish what you under- 



120 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

take ; third, a cheerful hope of success ; fourth, a true 
knowledge of yourself — of yourself and psychological 
power, and of extraneous means to affect him physi- 
cally, such as gifts, or good and unobtrusive acts. 
My word for it, before you are done with your man 
you will be surprised at the amount of good feeling 
and friendship that will be developed between you. 
Perhaps he fancies you have done him a wrong. If 
you can possibly find some flaw in yourself, go and 
accuse yourself to him, and beg his pardon ; accuse 
yourself for the very things you know he is guilty of, 
but never accuse or upbraid him. But if you do this 
with doubt and unbelief in your heart of any good in 
him, your eyes will look your distrust, and he will be 
driven away from you as from a reptile. Control 
begins at home. 
* Consider the value of friendship, and the evils 
growing out of enmity. Meditate upon your enemy, 
and when thus wrapped in thought, with your atten- 
tion fixed upon him, lo ! your spirit flashes like the 
lightnings to him, and mingles with his spirit, thus 
leaving an impression for either good or evil, just as 
you feel. Your belief in yourself is of importance 
here, for if you doubt yourself, and the Good God 
who dwells alike in you and your enemy, your 
prayers fall far short of the mark, and you will find 
your will weak and your mind scattering. Know you 
not that the same creative power called him into 
existence that did you ? Dare you question the pur- 
poses and wisdom of the Creator ? Why do you hate 



BELIEF AND HOPE. 1 2 1 

or dislike him ? Because he does different than you 
wish him to ! Because he is not as you wish him to 
be ! Ah ! It is the same old story, " Great I and 
little you." Better by far " pluck the motes out of 
your own eyes " before you essay to sit in judgment 
upon your neighbor. When you judge others you 
are judging God, and yourself, for God is in all and 
is all. Then ponder these things well, my friend, 
for " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain 
mercy." Woe to him who thinks wrathfully of 
others. There is no divinity in wrath. God could 
not be Infinite if all things were alike ! If you are 
good show your goodness by increasing the good. 
That is our work. Believe in all things, because they 
are of the Father — you know not but your enemy 
was given to try you ! Can you stand the test ? 
Wrath piles up wrath as wood piled on a fire, but 
"gentle blows kill the devil/' 

Which road will you follow, reader, belief or un- 
belief — in order to make the most of yourself? 
Which leads to power? 



122 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE PSYCHIC SENSES 

To conceive a beginning is to conceive one being 
as all. There can be no boundaries to such being 
no centre, circumference, nor form whatever. The 
absurdity of such concept is apparent ; — but God 
exists : He has neither beginning nor end, yet in all 
nature he declares of Himself : 

I am thought and the thinker, 

The draught and the drinker, 

The body, the senses, the soul: 

An atom adrift in the sky, 

A tear-drop, a blush or a sigh, — 

The smallest, — the greatest, — the whole. 

As one or as many, as glory or shame, 
As dust on the wind, as water, or flame, 
" / am that I am." Whatever men make, 
Good or ill, I become for their sake. 
Whatsoever they love I am moulded to be, 
The king or his courtiers, the slave or the free. 

God exists and so do I, and as there is only one 
existence, I am God, and God is I. 

Man is God's agent in nature and creates things 
in the same manner as God does : — In and of Him- 
self. 



THE PSYCHIC SENSES. 1 23 



Everything that man makes is first made in his 
mind — of his own substance — to illustrate : I exist 
the same as God exists ; therefore 

I. I am formless, yet full of forms. 

II. I desire to form something. 

III. I think of what I desire to see. 

IV. I will ; I move ; and the form or image of it 
appears. This is evidence that I produce things from 
myself by the use of the four powers — in all of 
which I exist — gradually evolving some part of my- 
self into objectivity. These four powers are: — I. 
Desire. II. Thought. III. Will. IV. Motion. 
These powers correspond in number and function to 
four of the five senses : Hearing, Seeing, Tasting, 
and Smelling, — which correspond to the four sea- 
sons, four elements, four quarters of the globe, and 
the four points of the compass. 

This is the "Divine Quarternary" of the soul, by 
the use of which the ego projects some portion 
of itself outwardly and at the same time draws to 
itself things it discovers and desires. 

For be it known that man is suspended between 
two opposing powers of Darkness : on the one hand 
by material darkness, which contains only the perish- 
able, changeable substance of which things are made : 
on the other hand, by spiritual darkness in which is 
hidden life and all inconceivable powers. Now bear 
in mind that feeling is not included in the quarter- 
nary, although it is the most important of all the 
senses. 



124 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

As explained elsewhere, feeling is the focus of all 
the senses : they come together in it like four great 
rivers emptying their contents into one vast whirl- 
pool, to be carried down to unknown regions of the 
soul, there to be transformed into matter, and carried 
outward through the processes of growth, to become 
the flesh, bone and muscle of these bodies. 

Sound is thus transformed into matter. The eyes 
carry that which becomes a part of us, to the soul. 
The aura of things that we smell is as important as 
the food which we taste. 

Feeling is a vortex leading to the soul ; and ob- 
noxious elements, by accumulating there, produce 
heat or desire, which brings both pain and pleasure, 
and evolves thoughts of approval or of disapproval, 
thereby giving quality to the matter created, and pro- 
ducing discord or harmony, health or disease. 

In this manner do we create, momentarily and 
without ceasing, new atoms of these bodies, — making 
them from the things which draw near to us in the 
darkness which covers all action. 

We call from the abyss of nonentity that which, 
too often, makes the soul sick. They come — dis- 
cord, malaria, crime, disease, and death — because 
we desire too many material things, and because our 
thoughts and wills move us outwardly, carrying our 
souls into violence and war. 

Greed is a monster of darkness : and those who 
think most of wealth carry him down in sight and 
sound, in smell and taste, to the soul itself, there to 



THE PSYCHIC SENSES. 1 25 

become flesh and blood reeking with the poison of 
insanity and crime. 

Ignorance is darkness, and the material side of the 
sense of feeling is a dark side, while the spiritual or 
mental side is lighted up by the rational mind. 

Mind also has a quarternary of senses, correspond- 
ing to the material side. These are called the Psychic f 
senses, because they build the Divine body and 
mind. They connect with the north, south, east 
and west of spiritual darkness, which in silence awaits 
the vibrations of a desire for improvement, and the 
projection of a thought of other than material glory 
or possession. It is in spiritual darkness, sin and 
misery, that glory and immortal life are concealed, 
waiting for Desire to draw the elements of an organi- 
zation suitable for their indwelling, into the soul, 
there to be fructified, to grow and to be born in due 
season, master of all. 

Desire is not "The Father" so often referred to 
by the loving Jesus, saying " no man can come unto 
me except the Father draw him." Desire is the 
Mother of both materiality and mentality. It is for 
us to choose which we will be, mind or matter. We 
cannot be both. 

Mind is within the body and the ego is in the 
mind, — a prisoner in dark matter. The Psychic 
senses of light, of sight and of thought, illuminate 
the body, and the ego finds his way out of prison, — 
or the body becomes a fire body> and free. 

Desire is not the ego, since it is something I pos- 



126 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

sess, a something within, which becomes outward in 
motion, which I govern so long as it remains within, 
but which governs me when it becomes external. 
That is the case with desire ; it moves by the force 
of the will, upon the wings of thought, materially or 
spiritually, in either case to become the controlling 
influence of our lives. 

The senses are dual — " male and female " — and 
so all creation is sexual action. Jesus in talking 
with Nicodemus about being born again, likened the 
spirit to the wind that "bloweth where it list eta." 
Now the sense of smell has direct reference to the 
spirit or aura of things — as has the nose to the 
" wind" we breathe : and the air in passing into the 
lungs, divides itself in the nostrils, ■ — becoming pos- 
itive and negative, — one supporting the male, the 
other the female, which is within. Between these, a 
constant creative or generative action is kept up, 
wherein spirit becomes matter. 

Man has within himself the four great quarters of 
the globe, both materially and psychically : so also 
has he the great sensitive equatorial region, where 
the soul or seat of consciousness is located. This is 
the region of feeling wherein occurs the division of 
sense into the quarternaries of pain and pleasure, and 
good and evil. 

Cold corresponds to the region of the north and 
south poles, while heat corresponds to the centre 
or soul under the equator. The masculine is in the 
north, the feminine in the south. In man, as in the 



THE PSYCHIC SENSES. 1 27 

north, is cold, sleeping force. There lies Death, 
which means division and loss of power by the out- 
ward rush of energy toward whatever attracts him ; 
and that which attracts him most of all is the femi- 
nine. 

Man gives ; woman receives ; he is the father, she, 
the mother. She is affectionate, and receives his 
passion, which she infolds as her own, returning in 
exchange therefore, her gentle and tender affection, 
which makes him human. 

He is spirit — a moving force — which, like the 
north wind blowing south, carries with it a smell 
which begets in the south a host of living things. 

The sense which corresponds to the north is ma- 
terially ', that of smell ; psychically, it is that of intui- 
tive perception, a psychometric sense which is detec- 
tive of and ferrets out hidden things. 

The sense of smell — the male sense — projects 
the spirit or breath, the scent or aura of things or of 
action, into the female sense of taste, where it ges- 
tates, like a child in embryo, to be born into 
the world as judgment, perception, conclusion of 
sense, etc. It inhales the spirit and the aura of 
things as the nose does the atmosphere, projecting 
them on the other hand, as light projects its rays into 
darkness. For the senses of smell and of sight are 
both masculine and contain and project the fecundat- 
ing principle into the feminine senses of taste, which 
is of the south, and of hearing, which is of the west. 
Smell aggravates taste ; and food drops into the dark 



128 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

abyss of an empty stomach, as drops the ovarian egg 
into the womb, there to receive the fecundating prin- 
ciple and to digest or ge state into vitality. 

The east is the region of light or mind whence the 
ego sends out a flame to illuminate the universe, 
while the west is the region of darkness, of ignorance, 
of mystery, the unknown, the mother of all things, 
the receptacle of light, the womb wherein thought, 
the fecundating principle of mind, explodes and gives 
birth to the first of creation, that sound of God's 
voice which breaks the awful silence where thought 
is not, — saying, " let there be light." Sound ap- 
pears, before light, even as the wail of an infant is 
prior to its thought. That which kindles the fires of 
intelligence is a breath, whose sound is heard in the 
still night of creation before the eye perceives the 
motion thereof, A breath which made " Adam a liv- 
ing soul." A breath whose vibration was "The 
Word," which St. John says was "in the beginning 
with God and which was God." A breath, like " the 
wind that bio wet h where it listeth," of whose home, 
form, or coming and going, we know not, yet which 
we breathe, hear and feel. This is the spirit which 
finds voice in preaching, praying, and in songs of all 
kinds. This Psychic sense of hearing is at the foun- 
dation of all culture and of all power. 

The low, soft lullaby of a mother's love reaches the 
soul of a fretful infant and lures it to sleep and for- 
getfulness of its pains. 

Ah, who can estimate the power of suggestion ? 



THE PSYCHIC SENSES. 1 29 

There is magic in sound. It creates more things than 
can be enumerated. Who knows to what depths of 
woe a sensitive soul can be hurled by angry words, a 
scolding tongue or eternal fault-finding, and who 
knows to what heights of ecstasy and bliss one can 
be carried by gentle words or sweet songs. 

The quarternaries are the means by the use of 
which man becomes great or small. They are the 
hands, the feet and the head, whereby he takes hold 
upon the north and the south, thus standing firmly 
and with self reliance upon matter, while his head 
associates with the stars.- 

There is a Divine Man and Woman in each and 
every son and daughter of Adam. 1 She stands with 
Her back to the night of the west, with upturned 
face to the rising sun and with outstretched arms and 
open fingers toward the north and south ; while He, 
facing the night and Her, with his back to the light, 
stands with outstretched hands, and with strength, 
in the force of his physical manhood, to pull down 
the stars and remodel the earth. 

So standing, they approach and recede. As they 
approach, her form and face glow with the supernal 
radiance cast over him from the rising sun, while his 
face grows soft and tender with the reflection of her 
beauty. The glory increases between them and 

1 There is sexual arcana in the Quarternaries which I can barely touch upon 
in this work. It is the great Rosicrucian secret, — i.e., "The Mystery of the 
Serpent" so skilfully guarded in the Scriptures. — which embraces the cult of 
the entire religious world. Of this I purpose to write in the near future. 

F. B. D. 



130 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

shadowy images, floating in the twilight of being, flit 
away from between them and are lost or swallowed 
up in the darkness before the man. In receding 
from each other the darkness falls, deeper and even 
more dense, as they grow apart ; while the nearer 
they approach, the more beautiful and radiant do 
those images appear, disappearing in his shadow as 
the reflection from her increases and envelops him 
with power and gentleness. These images, which are 
evolved from the action of the masculine with the 
feminine within, are principles of sense. Seven of 
them lead man backward from the feminine within, 
and the light which shines through her to the loneli- 
ness of his half being and the darkness and weakness 
of matter : but there are seven other principles which 
lead man forward towards her and the light of his 
own soul, to the completion of being and to a divine 
marriage within of which outward marriage is only a 
symbol. 

These mental and psychic images which are 
evolved by the action and reaction of sense, have 
names, a few of which are given as the steps are 
taken. 

The motor or power which prompts the first step 
towards the soul, is a desire to become better. 

This desire is the prompting of the soul that there 
is something lacking — a deficiency — an empty void 
— a hunger and thirst for something that is possessed 
by neither the male nor the female within. The soul 
expands with hunger, and the greater the longing, 



THE PSYCHIC SENSES. 131 

the greater will be the expanse of soul between them, 
the male and female. 

S Across the dim vista of the soul, each — standing 
as described — sees vaguely an object which resem- 
bles himself or herself. The female attracts the 
male, and he must approach her. He must take the 
steps ; he must make his way through the twilight 
and the wilderness, amid the trials of life, along a 
way where no feet have trod. He is weak and un- 
certain of himself, and as he makes the first step he 
totters, but, struggling with himself, he gains confi- 
dence and establishes the determination to try again. 

This first step is experience from which follow suc- 
cessively step after step in an increasing ratio of 
ascending power and glory till he meets her and she 
meets him, in the soul, which is common to them 
both. In this union is begotten, conceived and born 
into the world, the sunshine, the flowers, the delights, 
the patience, the charity, and all that ennobles and 
beautifies human character. In this interior marriage 
or blending of the two opposing principles of being 
into one soul, is immortality achieved, and death for 
that person is a mere matter of will and desire. 

Seldom is this union perfected on earth because 
one, becoming tired of the ceaseless struggle of 
going forward or of opposing the outward trend 
of thought and action, loses sight of the other half, 
by the passing shadow of a doubt or of fear, and 
more easily takes steps backward and downard into 
ever increasing obscurity, ignorance and death. 



132 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE. 

Knowledge consists of accumulated facts, which 
are of two classes, viz. — those of the mind and those 
of the soul. 

Knowledge is generally attributed to the mind, 
which is made a vast storehouse for the accumulation 
of book learning, or the recorded facts of the past, 
or facts which have been acquired through the ex- 
periences of others. This is learning — like the 
training of Parrots, which speak by rule without 
real knowledge — hearsay. 

Facts are the foundation of all knowledge, — as the 
the One fact of existence is the Mother of all 
experiences. 

This primal fact of being is a soul fact, the mind 
has nothing to do with it, except to recognize it, as 
an infant recognizes its mother. It exists prior to 
mind, and is back of all experiences, which rise up 
out of it as the trees do out of the earth. Mental 
knowledge consists of the laws of motion, the manner 
and methods of motion or how things act, while soul 
knowledge consists of what we understand of the 
things themselves. 



BELIEF AND KNO WLEDGE. 1 3 3 

The first motion is the first experience, and life 
emanated from this point to reach in its weakness a 
belief 'in something besides itself — even its mother. 
In belief it rests, as in its mother's arms till some- 
thing disturbs its rest, when up through this painful 
experience it arrives at the fact of the uncertainty of 
rest, of belief and of knowledge. In the uncertain- 
ties of existence we cannot help believing in a cer- 
tainty, because we Know we are, — and we believe 
in other things because they are also as we are. 
Thus believing we try and test those surrounding 
things, and arrive at conclusions regarding them which 
seem true and certain to us. These conclusions are 
the understanding of the mind, the one solid fact 
upon which the spiritual man stands, — what he 
imagines that he knows, — here he rests. 

But these external things by their actions desert 
us — they prove false — they give us pain — and we 
slowly let go of them by doubting what we formerly 
so certainly knew of them. Here, in this doubt, is 
the beginning of a downward action of the mind, 
viz. — a Knowledge of the uncertain and the untrue. 
This is a lower knowledge which undermines and 
unsettles the mind, destructive to trust, satisfac- 
tion, confidence, and repose in ourselves as well as 
others. 

Unbelief in others is unbelief in ourselves at the 
same time, since we are all linked together. So 
knowledge follows belief both upward and downward, 
always antagonized by ignorance which does not 



134 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

knoWy but which always believes in the unknowable, 
and in its unrest and dissatisfaction is always striving 
for the real, which somehow one feels is himself, and 
in the absence of knowledge we guess as we desire 
it to be, and whether true or false we grow by 
guessing. 

Knowledge is the basis for conjecture. He who 
does not believe in conjecture is an unbeliever, (trusts 
only in facts, physical, tangible, and shuts the win- 
dows of the soul through which we may gaze upon 
fields of infinite beauty, and behold truth in its pu- 
rity), and there rests satisfied. He who believes 
nothing except what he knows, is a very small pattern 
of a man, for in point of reality he knows nothing. 

The man who ties himself to " facts " is like a fly 
in a spider's web : he is not satisfied. There is a 
wail within him, as of a drowning babe. It is only 
when he can forget himself and his doubts that he is 
happy. When you have gone through the whole 
gamut of experiences, and find reality and perma- 
nence in nothing, and vanity and vexation of spirit as 
the sum total of this life, you have then reached the 
plane of knowledge. This takes the egotism out of a 
man. He is then empty and receptive of Divine 
influences, and is led to trust, and to have confidence 
in creative wisdom. Trust leads to love of God in 
his works — not of objects, but of a principle em- 
bodied, and working in objects. Thus it may be seen 
that the road to power starts at belief in God. 

He who believes has Hope. Hope is cheerfulness 



BELIEF AND KNO W LEDGE. 1 3 5 

and happiness. Truly we believe in that which har- 
monizes with our feelings. To believe in a thing 
through fear is not belief in this sense, but rather a 
conviction of experience, far beneath belief. It is 
a shock, an agitation, wherein there is no rest or 
satisfaction. All conversions through fear testify 
to this truth. He who is converted through fear has 
no intuition ; hence he is not called from above, but 
from below. 

Intuition does not come from without, hence no 
teaching can awaken or open it. Instinctively we 
fear that which is not in harmony with us. How, 
then, can we believe in that which we fear? We 
always desire to destroy that which gives us pain. 
The fear of God is a pain which the world tries in 
vain to remove by sacrifices, prayers, and flattering 
ceremonies. Fear does not lead to knowledge, or 
blending of natures, but to unreal and erroneous 
views of God and of each other. It builds walls 
around us, as a citadel in which to defend ourselves. 
It isolates man from his fellows, and arms nation 
against nation. 

We fear that which we hate, and love and serve 
that which we are in fellowship with. Fear springs 
from belief, but it is in a descending scale : it is 
beneath and not above. The fearful are not the 
hopeful. Hope is the anchor of the soul. It is 
God's garden in the soul ; the Eden wherein the tree 
of life and of knowledge grow side by side. With 
hope, the poor in their hovels can live in palaces built 



136 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

in air. Without hope, the sick in their palaces live 
in real hovels. 

Conjecture is stirred in the mind by the last expir- 
ing wave of heat that descends from Divine fire, as it 
deposits its ashes as the facts and forms of existence. 
Belief is the flame-tip ; hope the glow of the red 
flame ; knowledge is where the flame bursts forth ; 
unbelief is cold ashes. Right belief is belief in man, 
and it inspires hope in man, and gives a correct 
knowledge of man. This is a correct knowledge of 
God. How can we believe in God when we do not 
believe in man ? How can we have hope in man 
when we fear him, and hold aloof from each other ? 
How can we know God when we really do not know 
any thing in existence ? 

I. Let us investigate all things ; for this is experi- 
ence. 

II. Let us believe in all things; for there is a 
spark of good in all, and the wisdom of the Creator 
may be found therein. 

III. Let us hope all things ; for the good mani- 
fests itself in hope. Be of good cheer, for all is well. 
The hopeless are desperate. 

IV. Let us know all things ; for the essence of 
things is fire; and he who knows the most is the 
purest, having been purified of his pride and vanity 
by the absorption of the essence of things. 

This is the mundane circle — the four elements — 
the four points of the compass. He who has passed 
around this circle has returned to the point from 



BELIEF A ND KNO W LEDGE. \ 3 7 

whence he started, viz., nature — indifference. He 
is a child again, without pride or egotism, hence is 
receptive to the Divine influences, which lead him in 
a supernatural manner upward to the abode of the 
Gods. Those who return to this point are capable 
of going higher. 

We all revolve in the mundane circle in quest of 
knowledge. Some gain a little, others a great deal. 
To some it imparts trust or confidence in man (or 
God) ; others grow misanthropical, and become 
soured on the road, and trust no one. Acid is cold ; 
it kills the warmth of the blood, and gradually, but 
surely, extinguishes the fires of life. Distrust is 
acid. 

We become fixed in our opinions on the circle, and 
branch off, either upon the upward or the downward 
road. Some, however, revolve in the circle of knowl- 
edge all their lives, and still have no opinions of any- 
thing outside of the mundane circle. 

It is said that only fools have confidence in man- 
kind ; but this is a mistake. The best and greatest 
men the world has ever known have been child-like 
in their trustful nature. The rogue and the knave 
are never trustful. 

We have existed previous to this life ; and we come 
here from above or below, bringing the aroma of the 
world we came from with us. 

There are three grades of mind, corresponding to 
the three general conditions of Spirit-life. This world 
and this life are a battle-field between the celestial 



138 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

and the terrine worlds, an intermediate state where 
souls are given a chance to ascend higher if they 
choose. There are many grades of being, both as- 
cending and descending; and man mentally and 
physically corresponds thereto. 

The spirit of the world you will inhabit after death 
is within you, and, as sure as fate, will gravitate to 
its home when freed by death. The spirit of the 
terrine world begets all manner of vices and diseases, 
"whose culmination, unless healed, is total loss of all 
power and consciousness. All love and humane 
affections come from the celestial. All things die in 
love, and all things are born of love. The extremity 
of grief is the beginning of joy. The last throb of 
pain is the first throb of pleasure. Ecstasy is close 
upon the confines of despair. The extreme woes of 
hell vomit out souls purified by fire. Extreme knowl- 
edge strips a man naked of his egotistical garments, 
and shrouds him at the gate as if for burial. 

This is the death of knowledge : the state of the 
mind is changed ; it has reversed its polarity. His 
intuitions begin to work in his despair of life, and he 
receives that which is to the soul what knowledge is 
to the mind, or food to the body. Intuition begins 
where worldly knowledge ceases. Its methods are 
inductive, instead of deductive. To the intuitive, 
knowledge comes by impact, rather than by contact. 
All revelation comes through intuition. 

The foregoing is the secret of all conversions. 
The despair of the sinner, when at its culmination, 



BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 39 

dies. Its death is the birth of ecstasy, which many 
mistake for the regeneration. But it is perfectly 
natural that pleasure should follow pain: hence there 
is nothing supernatural in conversions. 

The deeper and more heartfelt the despair, the 
greater the pleasure that follows it, and the more real 
and lasting is the conversion. But God's Spirit 
comes through intuitions — spontaneously, by labor 
and constant and unwearied attention — by purifica- 
tion of the mind, and a preparation of the body for 
its reception. It is natural to believe in the super- 
natural, but unnatural not to believe in it. 



140 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER XIII 

FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 

The most Fatal enemy of the soul is Doubt. 
He who doubts his own powers cripples himself. He 
who forgets his doubt rises superior to himself. 
He who believes in, and has confidence in himself, 
has more power than he who doubts his own powers. 
Moreover, the more confidence a man has in others 
the greater is his friendship, and the more friends he 
has. Friendship is the measure of influence, and, 
consequently, of power. Out of belief comes knowl- 
edge ; and out of knowledge comes faith, or, rather, 
that which approximates faith and makes it possible, 
viz., Intuition. 

Perfect faith comes from perfect knowledge ; but 
inasmuch as we are imperfect beings, and, conse- 
quently, have no perfect knowledge — not even of 
ourselves, and still less of others — how can we even 
approximate a definition of faith, much less a knowl- 
edge of the powers it may confer upon its possessor ! 
Why scoff at the sayings of Jesus, when we do not 
even know what he meant by faith ? He certainly 
estimated its value very highly, for he said : " If ye 
■ y have faith like a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 141 

to the mountains, be ye moved and cast into the sea, 
and it shall be done." It is evident he coupled it 
with the will, for it could be done by a command, and 
no prayer or supplication is even suggested. What 
great thinker ever extolled doubt, or taught that it 
ever conferred any great blessing upon its possessor ? 
-Not one ! It is simply a destructive power — a nega- 
tion ; it builds nothing ; it destroys all that it 
touches. 

A desire to know the truth is commendable. Re- 
spect for others leads to the interchange of ideas and 
investigation. This is good. Never doubt a propo- 
sition till you are sure you thoroughly understand it. 
Never doubt the truth of another till his falsehood is 
a demonstrated fact. Know a thing before you re- 
ject it A Be hospitable to the wayfarer : for although 
you may be imposed upon many times, you may some 
time entertain an angel. Some thoughts are angel- 
sent. 

But Paul's thought in reference to faith being " an 
evidence, — and the substance of things hoped for/' 
is open to question. 

Jesus gave no definition of faith further than to 
assert that it is a power above all nature's powers. 
A power that can change, disorganize and remove 
the solid mountain, heal the sick, raise the dead, 
make food for the hungry by a thought or word, and 
in fact endow its possessor with immortality here on 
earth. 

It is passing strange that his disciples, who were 



142 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

intimately associated with him, should all be silent 
touching this wonderful power, and it is still more 
strange that the definition of so important an item of 
the gospel should be left to one who had no acquaint- 
ance with its founder, — one who had never heard 
him speak of that or any other subject. 

According to the expressed declaration of Jesus, 
Paul had no faith at all, — how then could he tell 
what it is. What great works did Paul do? He 
preached and founded churches and wrote epistles 
for their instruction, but had not will power enough 
to protect himself from the wild beasts which de- 
voured him in the arena at Rome. " Evidence/' 
Indeed. What prostitution of spirit to mere theoriz- 
ing. "Greater works than these shall ye do be- 
cause I go to the Father," said the gentle Jew of 
Nazareth. Alas ! What does the record show. If 
he cried out in anguish of spirit more than once — 
" Oh ye of little faith " — to his immediate disciples, 
how much greater would have been His anguish and 
cry at the performances of Paul and the early Chris- 
tians, and what would it be now were he present. It 
is due to Paul that the Saviour's words are given 
another meaning than they were intended to convey. 

It is evident that belief is intentionally connected 
with faith from his saying: "he that believeth in me 
shall not die ; and even if he were dead yet shall he 
live again/ ' But why was not the whole of that 
declaration reported ? 

He evidently explained that faith is a universal 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 43 

spirit and not limited to any one person. His decla- 
ration to the woman who touched the hem of his 
garment and was healed — " thy faith hath made thee 
whole " — also his saying "I have not seen such 
faith, no, not in Israel," all go to show that the 
power was more in the one who was sick than in him 
who did the healing. As it is written, — "he did not 
many mighty works there because of their unbelief." 

There is no question but that belief is the begin- 
ning of soul power, and that faith is the highest of all 
soul powers y but of the powers which lie between the 
lowest and the highest, — of the places where one 
may pause to rest, close one's eyes to the awful alti- 
tude and grow accustomed to the changes in mind 
and body which must occur in the transformation 
from weakness to power, — who hath explained them ? 

We often believe in things in which we have not 
full confidence, hence on the road to power, the first 
step above belief must be confidence, and this con- 
fidence is generated in the mind by the union of belief 
with the object or principle believed in. Confidence 
is begotten within by a test of our powers — it is 
begotten between individuals by association — and 
while nearer to power than mere belief, yet is it a 
long way even below knowledge, to say nothing of 
faith, which is the opposite or antagonist of knowl- 
edge which it supersedes and sets aside as of no 
value outside of the laws of nature. 

We believe in things of which we have no practi- 
cal knowledge, but such belief is of the mind while 



144 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

confidence is of the soul and is therefore a matter of 
feeling. Self knowledge gives us all the power we 
have over mundane things, but inasmuch as our self 
knowledge is limited to belief or, at the extreme, to 
self confidence, our personal power is mainly a weak- 
ness of which we may very justly be ashamed. 

Faith is a soul power inherent in all but not mani- 
fest in all alike. It may be said that it is the pose or 
attitude the ego takes in reference to the surround- 
ing universe of life and power. 

It is weakness that needs support and it is a mis- 
take to assume that a weak person could possibly 
contain a power to move a mountain. 

Faith is not belief in some one else, yet belief 
arouses the faith which lies dormant within, nor does 
it matter who or what may be the object in which 
one believes ; but the belief which arouses faith must 
be that which takes hold of the Heart, — conse- 
quently true faith is within and closely and intimately 
connected with the Ego itself from whom all power 
descends. Faith in self is inspired by God who 
dwells within and it is that which one feels; but it 
cannot be known in any other v/ay than by a union 
or focus of all the senses, both physical and psychic. 

In proportion as one believes in himself, is he 
strong, to be, to do, and to enjoy ; for God dwells in 
self as a conscious entity ; but to believe on others is 
an open road to disappointment and failure, and while 
the weak must lean upon some other thing, therefrom 
arises the erroneous idea that faith is a belief in some- 



\ 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 145 

thing of a stronger nature upon which one may lean 
for support. This is true as to childhood, but are 
we to eternally remain children ? The full grown 
man trusts in his own strength. Is this not evidence 
which sets aside the knowledge applicable to chil- 
dren and weakness, and, furthermore, does it not 
show that faith is a self supporting and self steady- 
ing power ? If mere belief in one's own power, — 
which leads to effort, and is one step to self knowl- 
edge, — can do so much to make man great, how 
much greater could he be if he Knew himself intui- 
tively without the effort and experiences. 

Knowledge is acquired by painful labor ; intuition 
is the open door of the soul through which life and 
all that appertains thereto flow in ; while faith is the 
key which unlocks the door. 

The forming of the judgment or the understanding, 
is the greatest altitude the mind can reach. Here 
knowledge takes hold of nature at its best, which 
does indeed induce a love of intelligence for nature 
whereby mind is caused to revolve around it, eter- 
nally at home and satisfied. 

Now by reason of this great love for nature does 
mind antagonize faith, for it is hard to believe in any- 
thing above nature, whereas the highest point that 
knowledge can reach, is impossibility. This is a 
vacancy in mind unfilled by knowledge of mundane 
things. Impressions lead to belief beyond and above 
material things, and with this belief comes Doubt, 
which holds the door of the soul fast locked, and man 



146 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

prostrate and bound to the wheel of nature, which 
ever "goes round and round.' ' 

The fact is that we attach undue importance to 
mental powers. Mind predominates soul to such 
extent as to obscure and prevent all manifestations 
of soul powers. In all voluntary movements of mind 
and of body, the will is the motor ; but in soul 
movements — involuntary motions — Desire is the 
moving force. Desire is to the soul what the 
indrawn breath is to the body, i.e. — the accumula- 
tion of energy. Desire is " father of the thought/' 
It is a silent opening of the soul to receive, — a 
suction which indraws any physical sense desired, 
thus rendering it inoperative or disconnected with 
the will, as is one's hand when paralyzed. 

The power of Irdhi, according to the Buddhistic 
cult, which is developed by meditation and training, 
is the same as manifested by Jesus in walking upon 
the waters of the sea of Galilee, by Gautama 
when standing in the air preaching to the people, 
by Philip (Acts 8-39) before alluded to, and by 
many mediums of modern times in the manifestation 
of the power of Levitation, or of floating in the air. 
The allusion to William H. Mack in the first part 
of this work illustrates this power of the soul to 
indraWy modify or suspend the specific weight of the 
atoms of matter composing the body. 

The senses are indrawn in part or wholly in 
Hypnosis or in trance, and the indrawing of sight 
and hearing by abstraction of mind is of common 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 1 47 

but the main point is that this power is 
involuntary or of the soul rather than of thought and 
of the mind, — the power of Emotion and not of the 
will. 

The soul which opens wide its portals at a throb 
of sympathy or desire, automatically calls to itself all 
the power necessary to accomplish, but doubts and 
fears must first be indrawn. Peter could walk upon 
the water if his eyesight and his knowledge of the 
laws of matter had been suspended or held in 
abeyance. 

Desire must always lead the will and from this 
fact has arisen the practice of prayer. But the vocal 
expression of desire weakens its power ; since all 
power ascends from the Ego at the invitation of the 
longing soul, which in voiceless earnestness opens 
inwardly. The power of the soul to answer its own 
prayer was called Faith by Jesus. 

The giving of gifts from one to another is merely 
a temporary benefit at its best and often proves a 
curse rather than a blessing ; while that which one 
acquires by unaided effort is lasting and a source of 
character growth. Jesus, understanding this, healed 
the sick merely as illustrative of the powers of Faith, 
and often said, — "see that thou tell no man' 1 — 
" Give God the glory." He never claimed that he 
of Himself could do anything, — it was always the 
Father within him who did the work ; but even 
then there was no claim of giving. It is "thy faith " 
■ — not mine — that heals. "If Ye have faith/' etc. 



148 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

The faith that heals and the faith that saves is in the 
Self . if ye have it not there, no power outside of 
you can impart it, and no knowledge — except it 
touch the soul — can confer one single throb of 
pleasure or pain. 

x Man with all his knowledge and boasted powers is 
not so near the spirit world as the dumb brute which 
knows nothing. And yet, knowledge is our only 
hope, for mind is the light of this existence, and 
knowledge being the ultimate of mental action, if, at 
its highest point, or apex, it meets the spirit world 
with sufficient intensity to become impregnated with 
a desire for something grander, and a more lofty idea 
of human nature and its possibilities, with not merely 
an idea "to know good and evil," but to know the 
Good, and to have power to do it under all circum- 
stances, then, indeed, it may truly be said to be the 
road to power. As such I recognize it. 

Analyze, sift, digest all the facts and phenomena 
of this existence ; weigh the stars and suns of space, 
and trace them in their eternal voyage ; dissect the 
human form, and search the convolutions of the brain, 
and, if at the end, you have no belief in the divinity 
of creative power, no belief in the spirit that has 
escaped your telescope, your scalpel, and your scales, 
tell me not that your knowledge is the road to power. 
For real power is repose, rest, trust, confidence and 
harmony. That which brings no satisfaction and 
rest is destructive. 

So, knowledge may build up the soul and expand 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE, 149 

-^il 

it, or it may contract and weaken it. If knowledge 
makes a man egotistical and proud, it does him harm ; 
but that knowledge which causes one to realize how 
small and insignificant he is, and how very little he 
knows, and of how little value that knowledge really 
is to him, makes one negative, and receptive to the 
world of intelligences which surround him. Then it 
is that they come near and speak to his soul, and he 
conceives an idea of "Brahm," "Allah," "Jeho- 
vah," "Jove," or "God." 

The knowledge of facts is good, for it expands the 
mind ; and when the mind is sufficiently expanded, 
it leads to deep thought, reverie, abstraction ; and 
abstraction opens the door of the soul, viz., the 

IMAGINATION. 

The imaginative are the credulous. Power does 
not come from one thing alone, but from the All — 
the Infinite. Knowledge is necessary to weakness 
and infancy ; but for the gods there is no knowledge 
— it is simply faith. 

^ Faith includes all things of an inferior nature, as 
the over-arching dome of heaven encircles all within 
it. It is beyond all knowledge, then who can explain 
it, or who can understand it ? It is to the soul what 
knowledge is to the mind. As we can only approxi- 
mate knowledge mentally, so we can only approximate 
faith intuitively. According to our knowledge, so is 
our faith. In exact proportion as we know wife, chil- 
dren and friends, do we have faith in them. 

Knowledge is not predicated upon anything but 



150 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

truth. It is not satisfactory to merely know that a 
thing is false. We must know the truth in order to 
be satisfied, and to be made whole and clean. As 
you know yourself, you have faith in yourself. As you 
know God you have faith in him. All that the mind 
can grasp of anything is that which appears, and this 
appearance is a revelation of something hidden. It 
may come in dreams or in visions, or in reverie, or in 
contemplation, reading of books, or conversation ; 
or listening to sermons or lectures may provoke the 
conditions necessary to induce revelations ; but in 
whatever way it may be induced, it is subjective ; it 
is a union with the thing thought of — a oneness of 
spirit and being. 

You have faith in yourself because you are at one 
with yourself. You have faith in your wife in exact 
proportion as you are one with her. Faith in things 
changeable, and hence untrue, is destructive ; because 
they desert you and leave you empty. 

Faith is a power which comes to man as a revela- 
tion, in the expansion of the soul, when the mind is 
closed up, laid away, as it were, or suspended — held 
in abeyance. Then things sublunary disappear ; and 
the ineffable glory appears, and, entering in, is one 
with soul — giving power undreamed of by mortal 
man. Faith steadies, sustains and fortifies the will ; 
combines all spirit in one. The powers of dissolution 
and of creation are of faith. It is effortless. It is 
the suspension of all mundane laws. 

Knowledge is of no account, only as it assists one 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 151 

to enter into the Spirit. Then it is set aside, as a 
man having scaled a wall, and not being obliged to 
return, throws the ladder down. Think you this 
faith and power can come to us ? Nay ! We must 
ascend to it through a regeneration in the Spirit, and 
by a birth of the Spirit. It is another mode of ex- 
istence, to be entered only through birth. Salvation 
is from weakness, disease and death, and thus from 
hell ; for hell is an outgrowth of these. 

We work the best we can to prepare the way ; but 
we make mistakes and failures in our ignorance, and 
fall continually. But faith is a gift of the Spirit in 
answer to our intentions and aspirations. In faith 
there are no mistakes nor failures. It is not possible 
to lose faith when once attained. How is it possible 
for a child after it is born, to become as it was prior 
to birth ? Faith is universal. There is no one or 
particular faith/' 

There is no such thing as " the faith ; " conse- 
quently faith cannot be lost, any more than God can 
be. Talk about "falling from grace/ ' and "losing 
the faith ! " Nonsense ! They never have any to 
lose. There is a fall, however, in the pretense of 
possession. The pretender always falls. 

It is the habit to speak of faith as a something akin 
to belief — as blind — as less than knowledge. But 
this shows our ignorance. Faith is to the Divine 
mind what knowledge is to the natural. Through 
and by knowledge things of use are produced and 
multiplied in the earth. Through and by faith matter 



152 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

is evolved from the spirit, which, from a chaotic, 
formless state, takes form such as the will may 
determine. 

By this method Jesus made bread and fish for the 
hungry multitude. A few loaves and fishes were 
sufficient to furnish a nucleus of attraction, when, in 
obedience to his will, his Spirit flowed in and assumed 
the form desired. 

In support of this Idea that it was his spirit which 
entered into the loaves and fishes and multiplied 
them, i.e., was transmuted there and then into bread 
and meat, please read his own declaration (see Mark 
xiv. ch., 23d and 24th verses : Luke xxii. 19; Matt, 
xxvi. 27, 28, 29). " Take and eat, this is my body," 
etc., " Drink ! this is my blood ! " "I and my Father 
are one." How beautiful, and yet so simple ! God is 
in everything, and is everything. We eat him, we 
drink him, and we breathe him. These things sup- 
port these bodies, but the thoughts we think are the 
breathing in of our spirits from his spirit. The ele- 
ments composing food are the same as those compos- 
ing our bodies. Attraction is the soul and life of 
every atom of matter in existence, this principle in 
humanity is termed affection or love, and Jesus said, 
" God is a Spirit," — not a form but a Spirit. John, 
the " beloved Apostle," in speaking of the same 
thing afterwards, wrote, " God is Love," and " No 
man hath seen God at anytime." Why? Because 
spirits are not seen but felt. Anger, pride, avarice, 
etc., are spirits, but they have no form except as they 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 153 

take form in acts, they are felt within us, and mani- 
fest themselves outwardly. Thus God or love dwells 
in all that is ; and he who hath most love in his 
heart sees and feels the most of God in all outward 
manifestations, because he feels him within. So 
when you eat your meals, consider it is partaking 
of "the sacrament/ ' The thoughts you have of 
your food call the spirit uppermost in your minds 
thereto, and charge it with life and health ; or if you 
eat with an envious, covetous, or an angry mind — 
then disease and death attend your eating and drink- 
ing. If you love your food, it does you good, but if 
you loathe it for any reason, you better not partake. 
Be thankful for what the Good Lord doth send; 
for in so doing you do become full to overflowing 
with the spirit, and food becomes spiritualized and 
multiplied, assuming any quality desired. Not only 
that, but food may be produced spontaneously, as 
Jesus produced it, or any poisonous substance may be 
made harmless — solid matter moved from place to 
place without visible force. The methods by which 
this may be done are not easily explained, even when 
one possesses the power. Why ? Because the power 
does not exist wholly in mind. Mind leads up to it, 
as it leads to the soul. Faith is a soul-power which 
descends into the man at times by reason of the union 
of Belief and Knowledge. For knowledge is a thing 
felt by the soul, as well as comprehended by mind. 
I do not believe 2X2 make 4. I know it — it is a 
demonstrated certainty; and my soul rests satisfied 



154 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

in its fulness of this truth. Belief is in things of 
which the soul may glimpse truth in an uncertain 
twilight, — which when found out becomes a cer- 
tainty to the soul, and knowledge to the mind — 
thus the soul and mind are connected, or the door 
opens, for Spirit with its satisfaction and rest, to enter 
into the man with power. The nature of the knowl- 
edge determines the elevation and satisfaction of the 
soul, and the degree of power given. Thus does one 
enter into the Spirit, and the Spirit enters into him, 
first by evolution, second by involution. The Mind 
by concentration and limitation of thought evolves a 
stream of light in one direction, which when at its 
ultimate height receives a rush of Spirit in which 
Power resides. In view of this principle of evolution 
Jesus said : " First seek the kingdom of God, and 
then all other things shall be added unto you." The 
kingdom " is within you ; " it " is at hand ; " it " is like 
unto a pearl of great price ;" or "like a little leaven 
which a woman hid in three measures of meal. yy The 
meal is a type of the body, mind and spirit 

The wisdom of things is seen in their mechanism ; 
the order and harmonious arrangement and adjust- 
ment of parts, and the ease and perfection of motion 
without jar or friction. The same is true of the 
mental and spiritual man as of the physical. The jar 
and friction of this life is what wears out the machine 
called man. Each and every atom of the body is in 
motion, and they are in health well poised and lubri- 
cated. This is harmony. But when there is not a 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE, 155 

proper balance of all the essentials, there is a discord- 
ant friction of parts, and a loss of power, motion, 
health and vigor. The soul furnishes the lubricator, 
viz., magnetism. 

The kingdom of heaven is harmony, power, eternal 
youth, life, innocence, and peace. The principal ele- 
ment of the kingdom is wisdom born of love and will. 
If love be lacking, or be of a low, vulgar order, the 
wisdom born of her will be inharmonious, and the 
kingdom is that of disease. By wisdom, through 
faith, are all things made. But if the wisdom be 
inharmony, and the faith be small, or none at all, 
what can you expect to flow from the spirit ; or, 
what quality of life will be generated ? 

Bear constantly in mind, kind reader, that when I 
speak of God, I speak of your power of will and 
love. When I speak of wisdom, I have reference to 
the harmony of yourself. Harmony means a great 
deal Harmony means oneness ; no conflict ; no 
opposing elements ; no warfare between the flesh and 
the Spirit. " The lamb and lion have lain down 
together/ ' Remember, health is altogether due to 
what little harmony we have. The greater the har- 
mony, the more wisdom. The greater the wisdom, 
the more life, peace, rest, pleasure. Discord wears 
us out. The best of us scarce last half a century, 
and that length of time is enough to disgust most 
people of life. 

^ We are scarcely able to generate magnetism enough 
to keep this human machine in order more than fifty 



I $6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

years at the utmost. Now, were the love pure and 
innocent, and the will strong and God-like, the wisdom 
or harmony of the machine would be more perfect, 
and the life evolved, or the spirit set in motion, pos- 
sessed of such power that mountains might be dis- 
solved ; or bread, fish, flowers, clothing, or human 
forms evoked at pleasure, and the machine possessing 
such power could wear on eternally without friction 
or age. 

" Greater works than these shall ye do, because I 
go to the Father " (Spirit.) The dark and noisome 
earth — the fiery constellations of heaven, with their 
countless hosts, all exist by the will of God, and are 
sustained by his love and wisdom. But he lies slum- 
bering as in a tomb in the things he has made ! The 
mighty mountains piercing the clouds, crowned eter- 
nally with purity, as a flame-tip, tell us in their vomit- 
ings of fire — in their groaning, and shaking, of the 
nature of him who sleepeth beneath. 

Tombstones are they, flame-shaped and spiral, 
marking the resting-place of the infinite. They show 
the oozing out of his power, and the aroma of his 
presence fills space, things and men with his return- 
ing consciousness, which, when fully returned, will 
swallow up all things as matter in fire. The chan- 
ging forms — the mutability of things — is due to the 
fire which dissolves, changes, and combines matter. 
The will baptizes the fire as with water, and thus in 
wisdom preserves forms, and perpetuates life. It 
holds it in check, and regulates the heat so that we 



FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. I $7 

are not consumed. This is the esoteric meaning of 
the baptism with water. 

If the will can restrain the fire through its exer- 
cise, it also can unchain the lightnings and vomit out 
flame, which, though unseen, shall not be unf elt, and 
which, meeting things on the way, passes through, 
dissolves, and causes them to disappear noiselessly, 
in decency and in order. The same hidden and un- 
seen power drove back the lightnings in their mad 
revel on " dark Galilee " at the simple words, " Peace ! 
Be still." 

It is the unnaturalness of man that keeps the Infi- 
nite under. We cannot return to nature, but we can 
rise up to the supernatural, and still exist. We suffer 
pain, because of the deficiency of fire. How easy for 
the strong will to turn a flame upon the dark door of 
it, and exorcise it as if by magic. We are full of 
darkness and sorrow, because we are vacant. How 
easy to be full if we are only wise ! 

To attract the fire and hold it by baptism is full- 
ness ; which, indeed, is life-pleasure ; nay, ecstasy, 
beside which trance is as a dream. In purity all 
power resides. Fire renders all things pure. It 
reduces, refines, purifies and illuminates all things. 
Fire flows from love. But you do not know what 
love is. You think it hath something of sex in it ;^ 
and so it has, for sex is a symbol of it. The ecstasy 
of a virgin soul when first baptized by the contact of 
a spirit, all in harmony, is a poor expression of love 
in its abstruse sense. But it is the best I have. 



158 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Love is not the soul. But the emotions we feel that 
satisfy us, we call love. These emotions felt by the 
soul are produced by movements of the spirit being 
projected by the will from the mind to the soul. 
Soul is the mother ; Spirit is the father ; and love 
dwells in a latent state in all things till roused into 
action. So Spirit or God being love, produces emo- 
tions only by action, which is effected by mind in us. 
When latent l it is power — when active, the creator. 
, The highest and most ecstatic and exalting emotions 
mankind know — those that transform us into Gods, 
or debase us to the lowest Hells — are produced by 
the union of the sexes. 

It moves the whole sensorium of the soul, and by 
its motions evolves a spiritual fire that burns in the 
nerves like a volcano. As a volcano vomits out 
molten earth and mineral, so fire, trained by the will 
(baptism) decomposes all dross and baseness, which it 
eliminates from the system, leaving nothing but the 
pure metal. Beware of the fire, if you are impure ! 
It will leave not a vestige of you, soul, mind or body. 
Love builds up or destroys. Slow, lingering decay 
is as certain as rapid combustion. Nothing comes 
out of God's crucible but immortal beings. 



THE SOUL. 159 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SOUL. 
" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." — Bible. 

I have already defined the soul as a vacuum, and 
herein appears the impossibility of it. The sublime 
and the ridiculous are so closely united that some- 
times one is taken for the other. Modern philos- 
ophy, backed by science, says there are no vacuums ; 
that "nature abhors vacuums" — thus virtually ad- 
mitting their existence ; for how can nature abhor 
that which has no existence ? It is not possible to 
conceive of a thing which has no foundation or exist- 
ence. The supernatural is denied also, and that 
shows the weakness and nakedness of philosophy. 
x ^ The soul is supernatural, and it is a vacuum ; but it 
is not given to ordinary minds to comprehend this. 
How can the natural mind believe in that which 
nature abhors ? We instinctively try to destroy that 
which we abhor, and the mind that rejects a proposi- 
tion is at variance therewith, and its thought is that 
of destruction. 

No man can conceive of the supernatural, except 
he have a something in himself in harmony with the 
idea. The soul is a vacuum — it contains the Ego, 



l6o THE TEMPLE OP THE ROSY CROSS. 

its maker, which is supernatural, because nature can- 
not destroy it ; and that which is hidden is always 
superior to that which is visible. Soul corresponds 
to the feminine principle in nature, but this corre- 
spondence does not make a natural thing of it at all. 
It is not a thing, but that which gives birth to things. 
Attraction is the feminine of nature, but this is not 
the soul, but that which the Ego produces as a 
governing law in nature. 

In nature, things are moved by contact and by 
impact. Operations by contact are always down- 
ward. We cannot operate upwards, save as we 
receive that which is superior from above by impact. 
This is the way of the spirit. 

Spirit is natural, unnatural, terrine, and 
celestial, and may become supernatural by working 
itself out of the laws governing those four grades of 
spirit ; or, in other words, by becoming master of all 
of nature's methods, operations, modes of action, etc. 
This is within the range of man's powers. This 
nature in which we exist is not infinite. There are 
other natures. This is a peculiar one, in which 
motion is the law. Perfection of motion is the ulti- 
mate of this nature. Perfection is stagnation, of 
which we know little. The perfect union of soul and 
spirit is the supernatural, but the spirit is swallowed 
up by soul in such union. 

This union was called " Nirvana " by Gautama, 
which Hardy, the translator of Buddhism, says, means 
annihilation. 



THE SOUL. l6l 



But he mistakes. It is an existence outside and 
above all human comprehension. Hence the diffi- 
culty of explaining it. All spirit is fire ; but spirit 
outside of soul has quality, quantity, sound and 
colors ; which are lost in the fusion or oneness of 
soul and spirit. " Things of the spirit are nonsense 
to the common mind. ,, Soul is not a thing, save it 
be united to spirit, neither can we conceive of it save 
in imagination. 
\ To conceive of the soul is to make a thing of it — 
thus man creates his own soul as a thing. Without 
such conception the soul is formless, and there is no 
permanence or reality to its existence, i.e. % it takes 
any shape, according to circumstances and conditions. 
To give form to the soul, then, is man's highest work. 
The souls of vegetation and animals have no fixed or 
durable form. The same is true of some men. 
\ All perfect forms are spherical, and the Rosicru- 
cian symbol of a winged globe is a type of a perfected 
soul. Some Rosicrucians claim that the soul is 
located, or has its equator, at the pit of the stomach 
in the solar and semi-lunar plexus, with one pole in 
the brain and the other in the sexual organs. This 
is undoubtedly true of a perfected soul. But in its 
imperfect state it is in every atom of the body, and 
cannot be withdrawn therefrom save by death. 

The lungs are the physical representation of the 
soul's wings. All flights of thought depend upon 
inspiration — a breathing in, as it were, of another 
atmosphere from a thought-world. The perfect soul 



1 62 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

can leave the body at will, and fly away to realms 
more vital than this. But the imperfect is held fast 
to the atoms in which it is anchored by demerit. The 
perfect soul and spirit can make and dwell in any 
v kind of a body it chooses, and dissolve it at will. 

There is a vivifying and vitalizing, exhilarating and 
exalting influence comes by deep and protracted 
breathing ; but in thought there is a deeper, broader, 
higher, and more profound exaltation, because it 
touches the sensorium of the soul itself. Breathing 
is physical ; thought is mental ; but meditation is the 
poising of the soul's wings for flight. 

There are some thoughts which take hold on the 
filth of hell, which they stir up to the degradation 
and damnation of the thinker; there are other 
thoughts which elevate the soul and exalt the thinker. 
In neither case does the thinker go outside of him- 
self in his thought, albeit he imagines that he does. 

In order to become an epitome of all, man must 
pass through all, which can be done mentally, for the 
true man lives in his mind. He must dissect him- 
self, and analyze all his passions, motions, emotions, 
motives, etc., and master them all. They are the 
steps in his ladder of progress. He must begin at 
the bottom to climb. The sexual and love nature are 
at the foundation of existence. God has so ordered 
it that man's greatest happiness, as well as his great- 
est woes, spring from this source. If there is any- 
thing impure about it, it is in the mind of him who 
so estimates it. 



\ 



THE SOUL. 163 



Of all acts the sexual is the most potent, for herein 
man approaches the nearest to the portals of Divine 
creative energy. Here, in the veiled temple of 
woman's body, God baptizes matter with his Spirit, 
and lo, it becomes an immortal being, having in 
embryo all the powers of God himself. Is there any- 
thing degrading about this ? The true man and 
woman love their children. The great solace and 
pride of their lives are offspring ; they are a result of 
this relation, of which we may only speak in whis- 
pers, and over which a pall must be spread. As if 
God has made something of which man is ashamed. 

In this relation soul meets soul in an ecstatic 
blending of Spirits, and a watchful God bending low 
from on high " broods over the Holy of Holies " in 
the temple, and accepts the sacrifice, consumed with 
fires of love, and entering in, is born of woman. 
" The Immaculate Conception " is the result of a 
perfect union of man and woman. The resulting 
child must, of necessity, be superior to the parents, 
for such is " the Christ, the Son of the living God," 
not of a dead one, for dead Gods produce half men 
and women — devils in human form. " We are dead 
in trespasses and sins." 

A virgin typifies purity of Soul. "The Holy 
Ghost " is "the Holy Spirit," or a pure Spirit. 
Now, the union of such produces " the only begot- 
ten Son of God;" for God cannot be incarnated in 
impurity, save as a progressive being. The only way 
God can be begotten of man, or in man, is through 



1 64 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

purity. But what is purity ? What is sin ? Dis- 
obedience of law is said to be sin. Without law 
there could be no sin, for there would be no standard, 
or regulator of action. This is an idea as true as 
nature, and as old as humanity. The writer of 
Genesis expressed it in an allegorical manner, or 
as a fable or parable. Law is, after all, only a mode 
of action. But of what action is sin predicated ? 
Sexual action ! Nothing more, and nothing less. 
Strange idea ! And wherein is its truth ? A virgin 
is pure ; but a mother — a fully developed woman — 
one whose love-nature has had full expression, is 
impure ! 

I am not one to scoff at an idea hoary with age, 
which has had the respect and reverence of the good 
and great for untold centuries. This vague legend 
or tradition, of the fall of man, must have a founda- 
tion in truth, for it belongs to all races and nations. 
And this is also proven by the present condition of 
mankind, which I have set forth under the head of 
The Unnatural. It is a matter of little or no con- 
sequence, how it happened, but it is of vital importance 
to know wherein the fall consists. 

The ancients wrote allegorically. The fundamen- 
tal truths were not for the multitude, hence they were 
hidden away in parables, or conveyed in language 
intended to mislead. All knowledge of value was 
fast locked in the temples, and taught only as mys- 
teries to the initiated. But in their writings the 
truth is manifested occasionally, especially to him who 



THE SOUL. 165 



has " the keys." The ancient wise men, seers and 
prophets, were deeper versed in the mysteries of 
nature than we are, hence some of them stood nearer 
to God, and received truth more in its purity and 
simplicity. 
v The fall of man was the fall of the soul from its 
perfect spherical form to a diffused or atomic state. 
To a perfect soul the emotions are perfectly subject 
to the will, and any part of the system may be affected 
in any manner desired, without the provocation of 
contact with objects. Before the fall woman was a 
subjective or spiritual being (taken from Adam while 
.in a trance, as I will more fully explain hereafter) — 
a materialized spirit, with whom Adam copulated, 
thus preventing her return to a subjective condition. 

When the soul fell to an atomic state, subjective 
things became objective, and contact of things became 
necessary to produce emotions of pleasure and pain. 
Adam did not need the contact of copulation to pro- 
duce ecstasy, for it could be produced without — by 
will, and that without waste of virility. And the 
command was that he should not copulate. Such, 
evidently, were the views of the ancient philosophers, 
as I will try to explain further on. 

The scientific world is mad with evolutionism. 
Darwin has sunk modern thought low down in the 
mud ! Protoplasm is God ! It appears to sense 
that out of mud come flowers and fruits. This ap- 
pearance, however, is the same as that the sun rises 
and sets — the earth flat, etc. It is a delusion. 



1 66 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

That which appears is not the whole truth ; the most 
vital truths do not appear to observation. A plant 
or tree grows up out of the mud, but the flowers and 
fruits descend. There is a descent as well as an 
ascent, and at the point of union there is generation. 
This is nature's copulation. Plants, flowers, fruits, 
living things, eyes, ears, thought and feeling, do not 
ascend out of the ground, any more than the stars or 
the sun-light does. There is a mystery connected 
with all things which is insoluble, and the ancients 
deserve as much respect for their effort to explain it 
as Darwin and Huxley. 

Man grew, and still grows, as plants and animals 
do ; but who knows how they come, or from whence ? 
If thought lies perdu in the mud (as a flower), is it 
any less an unfathomable mystery, or any less worthy 
of adoration than if it be enthroned in the stars or in 
a God ? It is just as logical to suppose that sense 
makes the mind as that mind evolves sense. 

Far away in the dim and shadowy past some one 
conceived an idea, and wrote that God said : " In the 
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Is it 
not true ? Is this life ? If so, I do not want more 
of it ! But this is more death than life. The loftiest 
mind has not yet conceived of real life. This is, 
indeed, one long-drawn sigh of anguish ; a mad dance 
of demons ! A scramble and a rush after toys. If 
this is life, and all of it, then, indeed, is God or 
nature a demon, enacting an awful tragedy, for 'tis 
worse than a farce. 



THE SOUL. 167 



Man dies for lack of vitality ; which, indeed, is 
virility, and virility springs from love, wherein it is 
generated. So all diseases, pains, and death itself, 
spring from an abnormal, or unnatural action of love, or 
the sexual nature. Undoubtedly the ancients under- 
stood the "fall of man" to be a. fall of the blood. 
The laws of Moses support this conclusion. The rite 
of circumcision — the rites of purification — the sacri- 
fices with fire> and the shedding of blood, and the 
obscure narratives of the old Testament show that 
they considered sin as sexual. The same idea seems 
to have been entertained by Jesus, for he said : 
"Woe unto you/ 1 etc., "verily I say unto you the 
harlots go into the kingdom before you." Why were 
harlots named instead of other criminal classes ? 

And again : " Some men are bom eunuchs ; others 
are made so by men ; others make eunuchs of them- 
selves for the kingdom of heaven's sake." This, 
when rightly understood, does not mean castration. 
The Buddhist priest who has attained the power of 
"Irdhi," (the power of levitation, of walking upon 
the water, or of passing through the air, or of visit- 
ing at will any of " the three worlds," or " the Brahma 
Lokas,") has no sexual desires at all, and is as incom- 
petent as an eunuch ; but he has all his organs per- 
fect. He has, by a certain course of training, turned 
his virility upward and inward, instead of allowing it 
to flow downward, and outward, in the commission of 
what St. John calls sin. 

Turn to the first Epistle of John, iii, 9, and you will 



168 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

find the real definition of sin, " Whatsoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remain- 
eth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born 
of God." Loss of virility, then, must be sin. The 
first sin ! The monster sin of the world, out of 
which all others flow — as water from a fountain. 
Connect this with Gen. iii, 1 1 : "I will put enmity 
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed 
and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
bruise his (?) heel." (Heel here means something 
else.) The word "his " here means her. (It has not 
yet been settled what the serpent here spoken to 
means. Theology calls it "the devil;" but the ser- 
pent is the symbol of wisdom.) Seed here spoken 
of must mean the same spoken of by John, for the 
bruising of it is all too apparent in all the hospitals 
and medical museums of the world. 

Read God's admonition of Cain prior to the mur- 
der of Abel : " If thou doest well shalt thou not be 
accepted, and if thou doest not well sin lieth at thy 
door y and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt 
rule over him." Strange language to use in order to 
deter one from doing wrong, to tell him he should 
become ruler by sinning. " Onan " was slain by the 
Lord, because sin lay at his door — i.e., wasted (Genesis 
xxxviii. 1 1). What is a door but a place of egress ? 
Let him who reads think. But we are not dependent 
upon the Bible and conjecture for what we believe 
upon this subject. Buddhism, five hundred years 
older than Christianity, numbering 369,000,000 ad- 



THE SOUL. 169 



herents, containing all the principles that Jesus 
taught, and much more, teaching the way to super- 
natural power and "Nirvana," is sexual from the first 
to last. All birth is sexual, hence "the second 
birth" spoken of by Jesus must have reference 

s thereto. 

x * The curse put upon the woman : " I will greatly 
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception" was a sexual 
penalty, showing that "the fall" was a fall of the 
blood ; and in corroboration of this idea, nature weeps 
tears of blood periodically from the mysterious re- 
cesses of woman's body. Woman, of all God's crea- 
tures, is the only one so accursed. The atonement 
is of blood and of love. Through woman came the 
fall, and through the virgin soul must come immor- 
tality. Salvation is woman's work. 

"^ By the shattering of the soul into atoms, it lost 
control of the vital essences, nerve aura, or fire of the 
body ; hence man fell under the control of his pas- 
sions, and love became inverted. Hence man is the 
reverse of what he primarily was, and disease takes 
the place of that divine ecstasy which is his heritage. 
"The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children 
to the third and fourth generation." No sins but 
those of the blood are so visited. Love is the life of 
the blood, hence in the Scriptures blood typifies love. 
The blood of the sacrifice, of the lamb, and of the 
atonement, all refer to love. Man's passions are not 
love, but its lowest expression — its inverted expres- 
sion. 



170 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

To attain to life and love in its purity the founda- 
tions of God's Temple — man — must not be rotten. 
If rotten, it must be made new. How Herculean 
the task ! How gigantic the work ! No wonder 
Jesus said : " Except a man be born again he cannot 
see the kingdom of God ! " None but a God could 
reveal these things of the soul to man ! 

As I said before, I say again — meditation is the 
poising of the wings of the soul for flight, and the 
most potent meditation is that wherein passions are 
crucified. Man is an angular being, and in order to 
attain perfection these angles and triangles must be 
worn off. Your character and disposition (not your 
reputation) is indicative of the form of your soul. 

The man who revolves through life like a jagged 
rock — crashing, knocking, bumping, grinding, flay- 
ing, and demolishing objects that stand in his way, is 
far from being a true soul. True, he may get the 
angles knocked off ere he gets through his journey ; 
but the journey of the soul is infinite, and it takes 
countless ages of experience to round out a soul to 
a durable and permanent form, and then, when all 
the angles and corners are chipped off, it may be a 
very small thing, scarcely possessing any conscious- 
ness at all. But whatever its size may be — provided 
it is not a monad — it retains its form, and in the 
lapse of time and the increase of consciousness, the 
dim past becomes more and more vivid and real, till 
at last all previous stages of existence become a 
matter of memory. In whatever form it may be im- 



THE SOUL. 171 



prisoned, the character manifested will be harmonious 
and peaceful. The true rounding off of angles is 
done by the chisel of thought from within. We are 
the architects of our own selves. We build by our 
thoughts and acts the temples or hovels we inhabit. 
Some, indeed, live in caverns, or, reptile-like, in holes 
in the ground. Some inhabit the great deep, and lie 
in the slime at its bottom. 

^ Soul orbits differ as the orbits of the planets; 
hence the ages of souls are not alike. Some revolve 
in small orbits ; they make a revolution with great 
rapidity. Others, again, revolve in orbits so vast 
that millions of ages are as a second of time, or a 
degree of distance as from one universe to another. 
Stations there are on the way of the soul, where rest 
is taken, and new forms made, mysteries explored, 
other laws learned, and the soul enlarged. 

There is no end save to weakness ; the downward 
terminates at the centre, where no forms exist — the 
above has no limits — universe after universe stretches 
away illimitable. Sense makes boundaries ; but soul 
overleaps or breaks down all barriers. A mere crea- 
ture here ! A nothing, to be scoffed at, doubted, and 
destroyed by sin, it becomes in its flight stronger and 
stronger, larger and larger, till it becomes a creator 
and governor of worlds, and the architect of universes 
and of other souls. 

We are merely halted here on our eternal voyage 
to learn of this peculiar nature — to master its secrets 
and mysteries. When we have done so, we will go 



172 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

on our way. Some souls are older than others ; but 
no soul can leave this earth unfledged. You cannot 
leave till you have learned all that is to be known of 
it, and mastered all its creative forces and laws. 

True, we have a rest occasionally, of a few thousand 
years, in some of the heavens or hells of spirit-land 
or the GoD-worlds, from which return is not only 
possible but certain ; not merely to communicate, but 
to be re-incarnated. We 'sometimes leave our bodies 
in deep sleep, and visit strange places, see strange 
faces, and learn many new things, which we bring 
back in part to our waking state. Waking state? 
Indeed ! The real waking, conscious, living state is 
when this physical is in a deeper sleep than the 
deepest trance. The more globular the soul is, the 
more easily it may detach itself from the atoms first, 
and then and lastly from the body. This detaching 
is a drawing together, or contraction, or abstraction 
of itself, in which is health. 

Sleep is better than medicine. The cause of dis- 
ease is the close relation, or contact of the soul to 
the atoms of the body. The withdrawal of the soul 
permits the spirit to enter any diseased part and re- 
store it. The soul is foreign to nature, and its 
imprisonment therein corrupts nature. It abhors 
nature as much as nature abhors it, and it is bound 
to get out of it, in one way or another — either by 
growth or decay, or by both. 

From my boyhood I studied and practiced phre- 
nology, and studied myself closely. Wishing to make 



THE SOUL. 173 



the most of a defective organization, I strove to cul- 
tivate myself to the utmost of my abilities. But 
knowing my many defects, I felt often discouraged 
and dissatisfied with myself. One night, in deep 
sleep, I was outside of my body. There it lay before 
me, a mere lump of plastic clay. I said : — oh, you 
defective thing ! If I had had the making of you, I 
would have made that head far different. A voice 
said : " Fix it over to suit yourself." I immediately 
went to work upon the plastic head, and moulded it 
to my notion, and then got into my body and tried 
it on. It did not suit me. Again I got out and re- 
modeled it, with the same result. Time after time 
I essayed to make it over to my notion, but without 
success, till at last the head was all out of shape; 
in fact, it was no longer human. And the joke of it 
was that I could not get it back to its original shape. 
In my perplexity the voice said : " Trust in creative 
power ! Make the best use you can of your head, 
and by and by you will have a better one." Then I 
awoke, and since then I am content to work and 
wait in harmony with nature, and not find fault. 

Some of us, at least, are double at times. Nature 
is not partial to individuals. The way to power is 
open to all. " Many are called, but few are chosen ! " 
Why ? Because few choose to struggle up the stream, 
when it is so easy to float, like drift-wood, downward. 

To crucify the loves is a superhuman task, and so 
repugnant to man's everyday life and thought that 
most men will turn aside from my book in disgust 



174 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

and contempt ; and yet there is so much talk in the 
churches about " taking up the cross *' ! Alas for 
unbelief ! 

Whence comes the celibacy of the Catholic priest- 
hood ; the asceticism of India, and the peculiar tenets 
of the Essenes, — amongst whom, it is said, Jesus 
was "developed." They did not marry, and held 
property in common, as did the early Christians. 
They held, as we of the Rose Cross hold to-day, 
that marriage, as now understood and practiced, is 
unnatural. The asceticism of Catholicism, if it was 
not borrowed from Buddhism, is synonymous with it, 
which existed long before Gautama's time, who lived 
five hundred years before Christ. But no matter 
how old asceticism may be, or how much it may have 
been practiced, or how much spiritual power may be \/ 
attained thereby, it is the exoteric of religious ideas, 
as much so as any of the forms and ceremonies. The 
esoteric has never been, and never will be, given to 
any but the initiated. It is the much-talked-of "Phi- 
losopher's Stone/' and "Elixir of Life" — the 
least of all known. This subject, however tedious it 
may be, is intimately connected with the soul, for it is 
the soul of Rosicrucia, as well as all religious sys- 
tems. It is not asceticism which gives purity — it is 
only a method for its attainment. It is from the 
thought that all things come. 

" Not that which goeth in at the mouth defileth a 
man, but that which goeth out." Sin defiles, for it 
"layeth at the door." The greatest sin a man can 



THE SOUL. 175 



commit is the waste of the life a good and beneficent 
Creator has given him for his use, and not abuse. 
- Promiscuity is a mockery of God. The awful diseases 
that spring from it show the nature of the sin com- 
mitted — its defilement, and its curse. As the very 
ground withholds its rest, peace and strength from a 
murderer — as God said it should from Cain — so 
woman withholds her spirit from the debaucher. 

The painful or pleasurable action of any part of the 
system is due to the presence of the soul in that part. * 
If the soul be withdrawn from any part, that part has 
no sensation, and the spirit, taking the place of the 
absent soul, builds anew the part afflicted. If the 
spirit be overcome by a strong magnetizer, and 
the soul thus driven back, repelled or forced out, the 
body has no sensation, and amputation or other pain- 
ful surgical operations may be performed without the 
subject being aware of it. This fact is well authenti- 
cated. 

This power of withdrawal of the soul resides in 
every one who has a will. It does not depend upon 
the magnetizer at all, but upon the well-regulated 
action of the will. Self -magnetization is a well-known 
fact among spiritualists, and practiced by all mediums 
to a certain extent. But it is too limited to be pro- 
ductive of the results above spoken of. Paralysis is v " 
the obstruction — through insulation — of the spirit 
in its free passage through the system. The soul is 
left alone in a paralyzed body or limb, without the 
spirit to give life and power — as all power depends 



176 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

upon movements of spirit, which is effected by its 
union with the soul. Mind is merely the connecting 
link between the two. The partial withdrawal of the 
soul is indicated by vibratory motions in the nerves, 
which, being extended, produces ecstasy, then trance, 
or insensibility. Those who follow sitting in circles 
are aware of this. 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TION. 1 77 



CHAPTER XV. 

MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 

I have already spoken of progression and retro- 
gression, as balancing each other in motion. The 
symbol of the Cross in a circle is illustrative of this. 
The upright, or " Phallus/' indicates the law of prog- 
ress ; the horizontal line the cross of the law — retro- 
gression, or the fall of man ; while the circle is the 
sigma of eternity, or of revolution. Man, in growth 
and decay, is simply the Ego in motion, and he must 
conform to the laws of motion ; i.e., he must revolve 
in an orbit, as worlds do. 

All life is one ; man differs from the animals only 
in form and the amount of life and mind he embodies. 
Life has no beginning nor end ; but forms begin, 
grow, decay, and end. The law that governs one 
form governs all. Forms change as mind changes. 

Consciousness is the highest manifestation of life. 
Man and animals both exist after death, for power 
cannot die. It takes ages for matter to progress up 
to a form perfect enough to manifest consciousness 
and thought ; so it takes ages for it to retrograde to 
a loss of it. Even form does not change suddenly. 
Death itself is powerless to effect any material change 



178 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

in the form ; but the rough garment of the soul 
is merely cast aside by death, and the spiritual body 
is immediately formed — fashioned in the mould of 
the mortal body. But this body, being like the natu- 
ral body, composed of spirit condensed, is subject to 
the law of vastation in the spiritual worlds, the same 
as here. Consequently the form changes, as the soul 
comes nearer and nearer to the union with spirit. As 
a man is here, so he will commence on the other side. 
If he is progressive here, he continues to progress till 
the merit he has acquired in this life is exhausted, 
then he will commence retrograding. If he is retro- 
grading here, he will continue on the other side, till 
he reaches, in the lapse of ages, perhaps, a state of 
unconsciousness in which he is re-incarnated in some 
other form. 

Life is like the revolutions of a wheel ; or as the 
succession of the seasons ; or as day and night. Man, 
and in fact every form in nature, may be likened to a 
fly on the rim of a revolving wheel, one half of which 
is in darkness, while the other half is in light. At 
the top — at the zenith — the light is extremely 
brilliant, and the fly as he ascends, assumes various 
hues of color which he did not manifest in twilight 
or in darkness, presenting at the culminating point of 
motion all the inherent beauty he possesses. As the 
wheel carries him down on the other side into dark- 
ness, his beauties disappear one by one till at last he 
entirely disappears for a season to emerge again and 
again, times without number as the wheel carries him 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TION 1 79 

eternally around. Imagine, if you can, that man, or 
any object, is the entire wheel, and that he revolves, 
bathing himself alternately in light and darkness, 
changing form and qualities perceptibly in light and 
imperceptibly in darkness, and you will grasp the idea 
of life without beginning or end. 

As infancy merges into maturity and maturity into 
old age, so does life flow on in imperceptible changes 
from those below all human knowledge through the 
lowest worm or insect to the loftiest, even to God 
Himself. In vain does doubt strain its powers to 
discover the missing link between the species — it is 
not to be found in physical things, — but the fact 
that intelligence is common to all and that it is graded 
from the lowest to the highest, shows the common 
origin of things ; and as the connecting links are not 
discoverable in physical nature, the points of diver- 
gence must be in that nature which is other than phys- 
ical. So, after death, the change from one species 
to another, or from one nature to another, is effected ; 
and the slow change of form in this life is the mere 
ripening, preparatory to making that change. 

Retrogression is as much a law as is progression, 
and, as it is far easier for weakness to fall than to 
climb, so is retrogression more apparent than progres- 
sion. 

It is not apparent that the brute nature becomes 
human, neither does it appear to the sight of the eye 
that the earth is a revolving sphere ; nevertheless, 
such are truths which the mind may grasp as firmly 



180 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

as hands grasp matter. If the animal nature ascend 
to the human plane, the descent of the human to the 
animal plane and form, is just as certain, and far 
easier, since to fall is easier than to rise. 

Many intelligent people hold to the doctrine of 
reincarnation while they look with repugnance upon 
the idea of transmigration. They readily accept the 
idea that an animal may become human after death, 
or that a soul may be reincarnated in another human 
form, but, to such savants, the idea that a human being 
may become something less than human, is very re- 
pugnant : again, there are plenty of exalted spirits 
from the astral plane of being, who, while controlling 
mediums and lecturers, deny in toto the idea of trans- 
migration for no reason other than that they do not 
know of it, as if existence is limited by knowledge. 
If there is a plane of consciousness near at hand, — - 
even on its confines — is a plane of unconsciousness, 
wherein, as in a womb, beings change form and 
nature. 

This is the dark region underlying all conscious 
life, wherein the wheel of existence is submerged at 
every revolution and even worlds change polarities 
and reverse their conformation. Herein races, spe- 
cies, nations, all forms, even intelligence itself, are 
lost when the wheel turns round. Who shall tell us 
of the submersion of the fabled Atlantis, and where 
are the voices or records of that intellectual greatness 
of which we, with our boasted science and erudition, 
are merely an echo, — and a faint one at best. 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TION. 1 8 1 

That the wheel goes around, there is no question, 
but of the duration of time for its revolution, who 
can estimate. Intelligence is acquired, and thus it 
may be lost. As this is true of the individual, so it 
is of the race, or of the world. There is no such 
thing as existence without change ; and change is 
alternation, as a rising up and a falling down ; though 
in cycles both vast and small. Repugnant as these 
ideas may be to modern taste, they are certainly based 
in logic ; and if age gives any prestige to anything, 
this must take the precedent, for the transmigration 
of the soul is the oldest religion known to man. 

Upon the tombs of ancient Egypt there is sculp- 
tured in the rock a picture of Osiris seated on a 
throne, and human beings ascending upon a stairway 
to him. In front of him they seem to divide. Those 
on the right still retain the human form, but those on 
the left are animals. Furthermore, there are more 
people in existence who entertain this belief than 
otherwise. If you read our Bible, you will see that 
the Jews believed in it ; and Jesus also. (Mark ix. 
12, 12, 13). Also see Matthew xvii. 10, 11, 12, 13, 
and xvi. 13, 14; also xiv. 2, 3. 

Now for the logic of it. An eternal existence, 
based upon the pleasure of a changeable God, is too 
absurd to think of, but all Christendom holds to such 
a view. A beginning proves an end. This we show 
to be an illusion of sense ; for a beginning is only 
apparently so as regards the life, while it is really so 
in reference to the form. You had an existence as 



1 82 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

an infant, but no recollection of it. You also existed 
in utero, but the mode of that existence was altogether 
different from life since your birth. You also had an 
existence as a spermatozoa, and swam around in a 
drop of semen as a whale does in the ocean, and 
fought with and destroyed other spermatozoa weaker 
than yourself. It took a microscope to see you then, 
but you were a conscious, living being, having the 
power of volition. 

Beyond this, science cannot follow you. But we can 
reasonably believe that you existed in an unconscious 
state in your father's veins ; and who can know you 
were not conscious even then ? Shall we assume to 
deny it, because, in our ignorance, we are unable to 
find you ? Is not the air full of infinitesimal life, 
of which we know nothing ? We know that you, as a 
spermatozoa, died in the womb before you became a 
child. Who knows that you had not just died before 
you became a spermatozoa ? And who knows but 
that you might have been butchered, as a lamb, a 
little while before ? 

Every act is either good or bad, according to the 
motive — or the mother of it, — but it is the ego 
itself which appears in the form or effects which are 
generated by our acts, 

The ego which generates a body in the womb is 
a living, conscious entity prior to and during gesta- 
tion ; although it sleeps some of the time during such 
gestation, — as we all sleep at night. In gestation 
the ego not only produces the form, but it becomes 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TION. 1 8 3 

the form also. I and my body are one — I am in 
my form, and my form is also in me and comes out of 
me to replace the wasting tissue of this fleshly body, 
or to repair its wounds. I am not limited to my 
body, but enclose it in my spirit, as God does the 
world ; and St. John declares that " God so loved the 
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life. ,, 

Now, the world is a mere form, as the body is, — 
it is the appearance of the Feminine principle of na- 
ture, in which things are begotten, gestate, and out 
of which they are born in due time. The spirit sur- 
rounding or hovering over the earth is the masculine, 
or begetting principle, — and the only thing or prin- 
ciple which can be begotten in the earth, or in the 
world, is life. 

The thought arises, Why should " God so love the 
world " ? The only reasonable answer is this. Be- 
cause it is His "better half" — a form in which He 
changes Himself from one into many, — from power 
into weakness. His only begotten Son is life, — or 
the ego in man which is the giver of life to the body. 
He who believes in life has a conception in his soul of 
an ideal life that he delights to form into a charac- 
ter that shall be eternal. He beholds the manifesta- 
tions of life in all forms, has respect for all things 
that feel, and only pity for the pains and woes of 
weakness. Eyes are windows through which God 
looks at us. What manner of man is it, who, looking 



184 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

into the eloquently pleading eyes of a harmless and 
helpless dumb brute, unfeelingly takes its life ? 

With what horror the dumb animals shrink from 
the very smell of death ! Is this not a hint that life 
is a sacred thing, and the begetting of it the noblest 
and holiest work of man ? 

As God begets life in countless myriad forms in the 
world, so does man beget all manner of forms of life 
in his body, — and some one of these forms will he 
inhabit after his death, and such as he does not im- 
mediately occupy will hover around in his spirit wait- 
ing to be occupied by him in some future incarnation, 
or, being vacant, are an invitation to some enemy to 
occupy, who may be an instrument of " vengeance to 
the third or fourth generation.' ' 

The distinguishing mark of a true human being, the 
line drawn between man and the savage, wild beast, 
is Pity. It is the true civilizer, and above all knowl- 
edge. In vain we ask, what is all this life for which 
swarms in the air, and walks upon the land, or swims 
in the sea? Was it created as a mere pastime for 
man's benefit ? Or, is it not more reasonable to think 
that it is all rushing upward towards perfection, — 
the fittest going up and the unfit going down. Dar- 
win shows the law of "Natural Selection." Man! 
Proud and haughty egotist that thou art. Nature 
thinks as much of a mosquito as she does of you ! 
You gestate in water the same, and go out of life in 
like manner as a mosquito does. But you make a 
greater fuss about it. Arrogate nothing to yourself 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TOIN. 1 8 5 

because you are a little higher than the poor, patient,^^ 
dumb brute you drive. Treat them kindly, for you 
know not how soon they may become human, and pay 
you in your own coin for your brutality. 

"Thou shalt not kill," was written upon Mount 
Sinai by one who knew what he was about. The 
Rahats of Buddhism are not allowed to knowingly 
tread upon a worm, or to take any life whatever. We-" 
are all related, and anon change places with each other 
in the revolutions of the great wheel of Infinite Power. 
We know not the effects of violence and bloodshed 
upon ourselves and others. 

Note the changes of form and feature from infancy 
to old age, and see how many times the Identity is 
lost in a few short years — lost to all save yourself 
and those in constant association. The slowness of 
the change makes no difference in fact. How often 
it is said of one returned after an absence of a few 
years, "Why, how you have changed ! I hardly know 
you ! " Think you those changes will cease at death ? 
I do not. 

It is the desire of every man who believes in im- 
mortality to retain consciousness and identity. We 
are rather in hopes that we will lose some traits — 
those which we despise ; but we would scarcely desire 
to be something else after death, unless we could be 
more God-like. Do we do not all at times do things 
of which we are afterward heartily ashamed ? Who 
is there whose soul does not shrink and recoil from its 
very self in the memory of some act of the long ago? 



1 86 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

How gladly would we, if we could, forget some things 
of our lives. It is well for us that the wheel goes 
around occasionally, and we forget ourselves tempo- 
rarily for a brief period of time, for then we do things 
worthy of true manhood, if such is really within us ; 
but woe to him whose soul is that of a wild beast 
when he forgets his parents and what is expected of 
him as a human being. 

How hard it is to forgive one's-self. No wonder 
King David cried out to the Lord not to remember 
the sins of his youth against him. Who is there who 
does not love the forgetfulness of dreamless sleep ? 
It is a forgiveness of the pain of the day's struggle 
and a renewal of life. Sleep is an emblem of death : 
of its value there is no question. We fold our hands, 
and sink into sleep as an infant does upon its mother's 
bosom. We give ourselves up to a power of whose 
designs we have no knowledge. We sink peacefully 
into an unknown existence, not knowing that we shall 
ever return. It is like death, but of it we are not 
afraid ; then why do we shrink from death ? 

If the forgiveness of sin be the washing away of 
its effects from the soul, it is a taking away of the 
memory of evil deeds, — not from the memory of 
some arbitrary judge, but from ourselves. Death 
does this. ^ We have no consciousness of any former 
life, — of being and doing differently, or in different 
forms or worlds than this. This is God's mercy. To 
leave ourselves behind and become something else is 
the Christian's desire and prayer ; but the fear of be- 



MIGRA TION AND TRANSMIGRA TION. 1 87 

coming something worse is where the dread of death 
comes in. If memory remains, it connects one to 
a former life as if it were yesterday ; and so long as 
this is so, a former life rises up to mock one. 

What benefit will a pardon be to me if I have no 
recollection of what sins I have committed ? If I am 
"washed in the blood of the Lamb and made clean " 
I shall be another being, another person, and that 
other person will have all the benefit of salvation, 
and I myself be forgotten. Is this not annihilation ? 
What better is this than to be reincarnated ? What 
matter the form if there be no recollection of a former 
life? 

But if memory remains, and the joys of paradise be 
enhanced by a recollection of sins we have committed, 
and the greater the sin the greater is God's glory, — 
for remember God glories in saving sinners, — so the 
more heinous the sin the greater is His Glory. The 
absurdity. It is a good thing for mankind that such 
nonsense is not true. Better is it that, like sweet 
sleep, death shall wipe the slate of human actions clean. 

This much-talked-of identity is but little under- 
stood. I am not the same person I was forty years 
ago, no more than one wave on the ocean remains the 
same till it is beaten upon the shore. As wave 
flows into wave, so life passes into forms of matter. 
A ripple here and a wave there ; a tempest here and 
a calm there. Such is life ! The great wave sinks 
into the small one, or rises into the large one ; but 
whether great or small, the calm levels all. 



1 88 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

The soul has power to identify itself according to 
its consciousness of what it has been. It identifies 
itself in many ways, by looks, acts, or by the narra- 
tion of incidents fresh in the memory of both. But 
if memory is lost, and the form has changed, what 
good is there in identification, even were it possible ? 
which it is not. I feel that I am the same being I 
formerly was, because I remember the long ago, — 
there has been one continuous chain of events that 
have gradually borne me along, — there has been no 
great shock or disconnection of the current ; but a 
shock sometimes interrupts the continuity of things. 
Especially is this true in regard to memory. The 
most valuable things are the easiest disturbed and 
destroyed — as we understand destruction. 

How weak, and yet how subtile and strong is 
memory ! The past, with its multitudinous experi- 
ences, sights, acts, sounds, etc., fails to keep along 
with us. They drop out by the way, as one wearied 
falls down to rest, and we look around at the end of 
the journey for the companions of the way, and are 
surprised at the smallness of the number we see. 
And even those that keep the closest to us, are the 
hideous ones we would most gladly have left behind. 
Perhaps we have taken extra pains to outrun or to 
evade some of them — but memory drags them along 
with almost supernatural power. 

The greater part of our life is made up of indiffer- 
ent acts of which we take no note, and which make 
little or no impression on memory's page, but the 



MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 1 89 

great events stamp themselves ineffaceably upon the 
soul. Memory being, then, the means whereby ex- 
istence continues in the consciousness ', its culture 
becomes of paramount importance, as regards identi- 
fication."" Memory is the soul of genius. We do not 
know but that the thoughts of the mind are half- 
forgotten memories of previous existences ! And 
Intuition may be but a perception of the past and 
future, in which we have always been as now. Our 
past lives are as a half forgotten dream. Some little 
thing calls it up, as from the deep, more or less 
vividly to our consciousness. 

There are some things which destroy memory ; 
so, also, there is a way of cultivating or of increasing 
its power. The opening of the mind to what has 
been is culture of memory ; the closing of the mind 
to that which has been is the decay and loss of 
memory. 

Memory is the outward or material part of con- 
sciousness, as the body is the outward of mind. 
Hence, to increase in consciousness and soul-power 
is to expand the memory or the inmost of mind — 
the sensorium. Action is expansive ', but inaction is 
contractive. 

Bear in mind, now, that by , action I do not mean 
physical or mental action, but soul action. The Ego 
is the principle of all existence, and is the cause of 
action ; but its first impulse is the evolution of a prin- 
ciple which is the governing motive or power of 
every act. Motives are feminine, while motors are 



190 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

masculine, — being the force out of which the spirit 
of the act is attracted by the motive. The ego sends 
force through the masculine to find rest, to generate 
in the feminine, and become materially visible after- 
ward in form and effects. The motive is the life of 
an act. Motives are dual — good and bad. The 
absence of a good motive leaves the act deficient of 
its life or expansive power. Hence, the absence of 
good is the evil, which is contractive. The absence 
of strength is weakness, of sight, blindness, of in- 
telligence, ignorance, etc. That which increases power 
is good, for it leads up to God. Good is the only 
absoluteness of mind — for, as I said before, it is our 
estimate — which descending into acts related to other 
acts, becomes a relative good, i.e., partly good and 
partly evil ; for it may be good for some, but evil for 
others. Good, then, which is the least harmful to 
others, must be the nearest approach to absoluteness, 
and thus to the truth. 

There comes from motives a certain quality which 
they impart to every act ; and as acts are graded 
from low to high, so does quality vary. Now, the 
good of an act is meritorious, but the evil is not, and 
it imparts another quality to spirit, called Demerit. 
For spirit is action ; and the motive of the act is its 
spirit — or the quality thereof. 

Spirit is graded from the purest white, through all 
grades of color down to the lowest black. The darker 
the spirit, the more inert it is, for power resides in 
spirit according to its color. It is the merit of an 



MIGRA TION A ND TRA NSMIGRA TIOJV. 1 9 1 

act which gives spirit its purity of color, but the 
demerit of it saddens the color of spirit and thus 
destroys its buoyancy. Merit is the concentrative 
power of spirit, for it draws all the colors together 
as in a focus, or prism of white light, or oneness ; but 
demerit is a downward action towards matter — a 
scattering or refraction of rays — as of many from 
one in which colors appear — and power disappears in 
the falling of it, or in its diffusion. 

Principle is merit, but the absence of principle is 
demerit. Now, it is necessary to know what a prin- 
ciple is, in order to a comprehension of this recondite 
subject. A principle is that which is true, self sus- 
taining and self poised in and of itself. Perfect self- 
moving and self-regulating being is a principle, — i.e., 
it is true being. The mental conception of such 
being, coupled with a desire or hunger of becoming 
such, is merit. It is meritorious for one to have this 
spirit as the motor of all acts insomuch as it calls 
into activity the highest mental faculties through 
which pours from the soul both love and truth united 
as one. Such love truth for truth's sake, not for 
sake of reward ; and they are true because they love 
to be so for the sake of love. This union of truth 
and love is the great principle of freedom which dis- 
solves the chains of bondage which hold man in " the 
gall of bitterness.' ' Thus is merit expansive of the 
Soul's consciousness, but contractive of the mind. 
Demerit springs from a want of love of truth, and is 
a disunion of love and will, hence, is void of principle. 



192 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

In disunion there are differences, which lead to 
aggressive acts — or acts against freedom. 

Aggression is the soul of demerit. The object or 
motive of an act gives merit, provided the object be 
for the good of others. There is merit in all love, of 
whatever name or nature, and it is this that supports 
life. But there is demerit in hate and revenge, and 
all passions which confer no good upon self or upon 
others, and this it is that shortens life, and makes it 
a continual agitation, and a death in life. 

The expansion of consciousness is due to merit, but 
the contraction of it to demerit. In the expansion of 
consciousness the soul transcends mere mind, and one 
becomes conscious of a truth, even without a reason 
for it. Thus, the past and future rise up in the mind 
in symbols, or impress themselves as a sensation or 
feeling. The spirit-worlds may be reached in this 
way without trance or objective vision. It is a con- 
scious contact of minds, things and principles. Con- 
sciousness meets consciousness in this expansion, and 
the conditions of any state of being may be known. 
It is a ready reader of character, motives, capacities, 
past and future events, etc. But the small conscious- 
ness is confined and limited by demerit — it reaches 
little or nothing beyond itself. 

Merit is acquired by acts of love ; it sets the spirit 
free. Freedom is life and joy. I am aware that 
some claim there is no freedom of action, and con- 
sequently no merit or demerit therein. But we know 
better. 



MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 193 

Now, how, or in what manner does spirit rise or 
become luminous by merit? The spirit has the 
power to extract life from all substance or spirit, with 
which it comes in contact, as it radiates in space from 
the body, and merit is that which increases this power 
of absorption or appropriation, while demerit destroys 
that power. Merit eliminates the tenacity or cling- 
ingness of spirit, by reason of which it is held to the 
surface of things ; thus giving it power to penetrate 
deeper into the inner essence or spirit of substance, 
and to extract the finer essences thereof. Merit 
increases the radius of spirit in this manner, and it 
feeds upon all things, for there is no repugnance to 
any. But whatever it may come in contact with it 
only takes that which is according to its own quality. 
Now, every object it meets takes something from 
and imparts something to, the spirit ; hence, may 
weaken it. 

Demerit increases taste and repugnance, and in 
this manner limits the freedom and radius of spirit, 
thus compelling it to feed upon "husks," often to its 
weakness and disease. (' He who is indifferent gets the 
good of all, and his spirit is fat. j But he who likes 
and dislikes the most, is poor and lean in spirit. 
These are basic principles of power and progress. 
Disease originates in this manner. As the beating 
of the heart throws the blood to the extremities, so 
does spirit pour out in the pulsations of will. As 
blood purifies itself by contact with the air, in like 
manner is spirit purified by the contact of pure 



194 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

things. "To the pure all things are pure." The 
more indifferent you are, the purer you are, for to 
the indifferent all things are alike — one. 

No man exists in any condition very long after he 
is tired of it. The man who is forced to exist passes 
rapidly out of one mode of existence into another, 
becoming less and less as the circles narrow to the 
going out. Demerit is that which compels us to 
exist — but not with a continual consciousness thereof. 
To increase in power, and the pleasure it alone can 
confer, requires effort in the acquisition of merit. 
Merit prepares the spirit, by giving it buoyancy and 
elasticity. 

The future life is similar to this. As we come 
here by force and go out by force, so we enter spirit- 
life and pass through it. But death is not a birth, 
and there is not necessarily a growth there as here. 
The spirit, being a mortal thing, is often diseased, 
which, of course, weakens it. The laws of demerit 
are vindictive, and all debts due under it must be 
paid, and death is the penalty of violated laws. Now, 
since the mind violates the law whereby the body 
becomes diseased, the mind is the thing that must 
die. Physical death is only typical of the real death 
of consciousness. 

There are things that wake not up after death, till 
they awaken in another form — mosquitoes, for in- 
stance. This is death followed by a birth into another 
form, but the form of man containing more spirit and 
greater consciousness, continues after death. But I 



MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION 195 

am satisfied that many never awaken, or if they do, 
they remain on the earth hovering around mediums ; 
by this means striving to get back to their old 
habits and vices — thus sapping the spirits of mortals 
of vitality. Such have an ephemeral existence, and 
at last fall asleep, and are again born upon this 
earth. 

But there are many who lose not consciousness for 
a single moment, and who are not aware they are 
dead till some time after. To such death is not a birth 
into another form, and scarcely into another existence. 
It is just upon the confines of another existence into 
which the good walk deeper and deeper, and out of 
which the bad are kept by their own inclinations: 
not only in this, but in all the starry worlds. 

In this world, as well as in all the planet worlds of 
space, every man must stand upon his own merits, 
and fall by his own demerits. There is no such 
thing as the transfer of merit or demerit from one 
person to another. 

Merit may be driven wholly out of the spirit, as 
colors may be washed out of cloth. This is done by 
the accumulation of demerit. So, also, demerit may 
be driven out of the spirit in the same manner, by 
making its colors brighter and brighter, by the accu- 
mulation of merit. 

The reason is simple enough. Spirit is the light of 
the body — its brilliancy is determined by the merit 
acquired in some previous existence or succession of 
existences. The brilliancy of the light may be in- 



196 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

creased by improving the quality of the oil in the 
lamp as you replenish it. But no other light, no 
matter how brilliant it may be, can make yours one 
whit brighter, by being placed near by. You can 
only change the quality of your light by effort in the 
acquisition of merit. A pure spirit can only impart 
to ycu as you render yourself receptive thereto ; and 
even then it can only give you the crumbs which fall 
from its table. But crumbs of spirit are better 
than mountains of gold, for they are health, power, 
immortality. 

Good acts have an influence upon the body in more 
ways than one. To do good, because it is easy to do 
so, is meritorious ; but there is much more in a good 
act done when the inclination is the reverse. An act 
may be forced out by sympathy — which is good, 
because sympathy is a result of merit acquired in a 
previous existence — but it may not have much merit 
in it as an addition to that previously acquired. An 
act done without sympathy for the sole purpose of 
increasing good, without any hope or expectation of a 
reward, has the highest merit therein. 

A man does not act thus except from deep and 
profound meditation upon the true relationship of 
things. Merit is the substance of the celestial worlds, 
and he who meditates deeply, attaches himself thereto 
by the elevation of his spirit, and incorporates it into 
his spirit according to his acts. Thus, it becomes 
part and parcel of his body, driving out demerit. 

In like manner could all diseases be healed, were it 



MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION. 1 97 

not for the demerit of former existences. Demerit 
must be worked out patiently and slowly. In some 
cases it takes numerous births in the human form, 
attended with a constant effort, with the object — to 
get rid of the succession of existence where there is 
nothing but an alternation of pleasure and pain con- 
stantly before the mind, and an idea to enter upon a 
state of being altogether out of all comprehension. 
" He that would save his life shall lose it, and he that 
would lose his life for my sake (the sake of principle) 
shall save it." — Jesus. 

Principle is the magnet which holds the man 
steadily to the polar star of power. Mercy is full of 
merit, if forgiveness comes from the motive to do 
good. They that do good because it is easy and 
natural, have their reward as they go along. But he 
who does good contrary to his nature, through a mas- 
tery of himself, lays up great merit in store for a 
future life — verily his reward shall be great. 

To feed the hungry through pity is good, but to 
feed them with the reflection that by so doing you 
will help them in the acquisition of merit is far better. 
It is better to do kindly acts and say kind words with- 
out feeling, than to feel and not say or do. Both are 
good, but one is greater than the other. A small 
meritorious act may elevate one to the seventh heaven 
— but he cannot stay there, for when his oil is 
burned out he must return for more. He will return 
of his own accord, for he will be in darkness without 
merit. 



198 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

This earth is the only place wherein merit can be 
acquired. A little merit will carry a big load of 
demerit into heaven, but it cannot remain for want 
of buoyancy. Every act we do, every thought we 
think, and every word uttered, affects some one else, 
and we do not know the extent of its influence. 
Hence, all creation is bound together in the bonds 
of sympathy. This is a result of demerit. The 
Heavens are fast anchored to the Hells, and there 
can be no perfect bliss so long as one poor soul 
suffers. A chain is not stronger than its weakest 
link. 

No one can escape the meshes of sympathy without 
cutting all its chords. Is this done by love, think 
you ? Nay, but by indifference. The love of prin- 
ciple is indifference towards objects. This is the first 
and greatest commandment — to love principle ! 
The next is, love all things as you do yourself. This 
is indifference ; for when one loves a principle with 
all the intensity of his being, he has no self-love nor 
love of anything on God's green earth. Now the 
only principle in existence is Freedom. Neither 
Power, nor God, nor Spirit are possible without 
freedom. Look you at the host of martyrs for Free- 
dom ! They loved principle better than self, wife, 
children or friends — they were swallowed up in the 
love of God's freedom ! This is indifference to 
things. Indifference is "the door" through which 
merit descends to man, and through which souls 
ascend to God. 



MIGRATION AND TRANSMIGRATION 1 99 

We are all sunk in a psychologic sleep — the fall- 
ing into which was effected by sympathy. Those to 
whom this life is the most real, are in its deepest 
phase. They cannot perceive the illusion of it, nor 
the ineffable glory of awakening out of it, and the 
becoming a spectator of one's own self and of others. 
This becoming a spectator is the stepping out of the 
illusion, as out of one's self in which state things are 
visible in spirit only, or as another existence. It is 
like a peering under the floors of conscious life, as 
into a great darkness, wherein things become less 
and less distinct ; or as a passing through a wall of 
darkness into a great and indescribable light, and, 
looking back, behold things as luminous — involved 
in will, psychologizing each other; in which sleep 
they dance with pleasure or howl and writhe in an- 
guish, as if in fire. 

Occasionly one gets tired,, and seats himself in 
some obscure corner to look on. The gods seeing him 
thus meditative, drop down into the mists of sym- 
pathy, thus approaching him in condition, rack his 
thought and increase his weariness to dissatisfaction 
and a great unrest — or to hunger and thirst after 
something permanent and real. 

Have you, too, reader, become wearied of illusory 
joys, that slip through your fingers in the grasping, 
as a phantom eludes mortal touch? Become indif- 
ferent, then, to the love of life, and gradually the 
pain and pleasure of it will pass out of your recogni- 
tion. Follow me in the culture of Will, and learn 



200 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the way to " the door." Space will not permit me to 
dwell upon this theme, prolific as it is. Volumes 
might be written, and still the darkness could no 
more comprehend the light now than in the olden 
time. 



THE WILL. 201 



CHAPTER XVL 

THE WILL. 

X 

"Men fail, sicken and die, through feebleness of 

will." All the potencies of man reside in the will. 
To its exercise is due all motions — physical, men- 
tal and spiritual. Will is God, and " God is a 
Spirit." Therefore, the will employed in an act is 
the spirit thereof, the motor, or moving force. Man 
is the focus of above and below — of without and 
within. Hence he is susceptible to influences from 
each. That some are more open to impressions from 
within than others, is evident ; and the same is true 
as regards externals. 

The will is liable to be led captive and enslaved by 
either — aye, to be subjugated and destroyed ! But 
there is a point where the will is self-poised and free 
in its action. As the will is the spirit of every act, 
it gives quality to acts. There seems to be a war- 
fare between externals and internals, as to the pos- 
session of the will. How oft do we see it verified, 
that "A man convinced against his will, is of the 
same opinion still." We act as we like to act — we 
think as we like to think. We can see very plainly 
that which we like to see, and shut our eyes very 



202 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

closely against that which we do not like. Evidence 
has but a feeble effect upon the will. 

Evil comes from without — or, rather, from that 
which is within being overpowered and captivated by 
that which is without, or foreign to ourselves ; while 
the good comes from within, or by the sicbjection of 
the outer by the inner. The objectifying of that 
which is within is idolatry. The subjectifying of 
objects is the destruction of forms, and the resolving 
of things back to the original essence or oneness 
from which they spring. This is the digestion of 
things in the stomach of the mind, wherein the fire 
is extracted which illuminates the spirit, and is the 
greatest good to man, for it opens the eyes of the 
soul ; it glows as a light ; it warms as fire ; it nourishes 
as food ; gives rest and cheerfulness of mind ; enriches 
the blood ; purifies the love, and fortifies the soul. 

That which is without is transient, fleeting, chan- 
ging and impermanent ; but that which is within is 
durable ; and the deepest hidden is the most durable 
of all. 

The will is the only thing that approximates abso- 
lute freedom, and this is not free because of love. 
Love is worship, and they who love objects are idola- 
ters. We are free to will anything we may fancy, 
but we are not free to love or accomplish, because 
we are limited by things foreign to ourselves, which 
we love or hate, or are indifferent to. 
N Love is worship, but hate is its reflection, as things 
tangible are a reflection of the intangible. True love 



THE WILL. 203 



is so far hidden from even the imaginations of men, 
that an effort to make it known is almost superfluous. 
That love which is awakened by sight or contact of 
objects is the dark side — the sinister side — of love, 
hence it is not love ; it is simply an^appearance. But 
the love that springs from the contemplation of a 
principle is unchangeable, if it be a true principle, for 
it springs from light which is real, as God is real. 
As God is light, so the will is light ; and the love that 
is produced by will is immortal, because it is pure. 

As God is one so the love which is single is pure 
love. There is no purity but oneness. The love of 
two or more is simply generative of a hunger and 
thirst for more, and for this reason Jesus said " Ye 
cannot serve God and mammon." Singleness of sight 
is clear sight, but motes in the eyes obstruct vision. 
Singleness of purpose is a pure purpose. The love 
of God is pure love, but the loving of more than one 
God is Idolatry, — as the loving of more than one 
woman is Adultery. 

It is the love we have, which begets God i% us. Love 
is blind, consequently those who are led by love had 
best inquire as to its quality. Truth is one, and love 
being one, the two unite ; but if the love be divided 
they cannot unite, consequently God is not begotten 
in a divided or impure love. Without effort there is 
no excellence, and here come into play, mental forces 
or Psychic senses of thought and emotion directed by 
will. The laws of culture involve the whole man, 
and are the laws of truth. If our love be impure, 



204 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

the God begotten of it within will be less than we are. 
We stand or fall by the wings we give our Gods, — 
hopes and aspirations are they, which, by tireless 
effort, call the divided spirit home to oneness by 
culture. 

That which springs spontaneously from the earth 
is the weed, bramble and fruit, which man tries to 
improve. So it is with the loves. That which 
springs from impulse is considered by civilization as 
a thing needing punishment. We believe in cool, 
calm judgment and self-control, as better than spon- 
taneity. This coolness and self -poise comes from the ., 
exercise of will. All civilization is due to self-control. 
It follows, then, as a logical sequence, that if it is 
possible for man to guide and control his loves, it is 
far better than for him to be led by his blind passions. 

Furthermore, if it be possible to create love by any 
process whatever, it is far better than otherwise. 
Hence the command to love, not only one another, 
but our enemies. Such a command is altogether 
superfluous, if it is not possible to do so. We know 
how to destroy and disfigure the fair face of nature; 
we know how to destroy health and happiness, life 
and pleasure ; but we know very little of the creative 
forces. We know what it is to have the heart beat 
quick and tumultuous at the sight of beauty, or at 
the gentle pressure of the hand, or at the bewitching 
glance of love-lit eyes ; but we know nothing absolutely 
of a power to feel anything but disgust at a loathsome 
object. Yet it is within the range of human possi- 



THE WILL. 10% 



bilities to love that which to ordinary minds is repul- 
sive — in fact, to love all and despise nothing. It is 
the despising of things that separates us from God 
or the Supernatural. 

The first lesson in life is the exercise of Will. We 
learn to use the muscles, but mental effort precedes it. 
The first effort is a projection of power into the 
nerves, which tremble and go astray of the object 
the infant tries hard to grasp ; but with practice the 
nerves become steady, and the infant learns gradually 
to manipulate matter — first, in its own body ; 
secondly, outside of itself. This power comes to the 
infant out of nothing, as it were, as characters 
written upon a blank page — nothing — called out 
into this world of sense by a display of trinkets, 
colors, sonnets and toys, to be a something manifest- 
ing power, force and will. 

The basic principle of all power and of all develop- 
ment is the will. It is all. Every faculty of the 
mind, every nerve of the body, centres in it. It is 
the trunk of the tree of life : all else of man are out- 
growths of it. Hence the development of manhood 
begins and ends in the will. It is the centrestance 
of being, from which " the rib " of circumstance was 
taken (or grew), as Eve from Adam. Will is the 
first manifestation of soul, or the first faculty it 
creates for its use. 

The will is the great pulsating heart of the Soul 
— the reservoir of the spirit — which, in its contrac- 
tion, throws the spirit from itself, and in its opening 



206 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

draws it back again. In the supernatural, the will 
produces, guides and controls the loves, but in the 
natural (so-called) the loves control and guide the 
will. 

Naturally, love is a spontaneous emotion, pro- 
duced by an object of attraction, leading the will 
captive. But supernaturally love is an emotion 
forced out by constant, persistent thought of an 
Ideal, which Ideal is the feminine counterpart of the 
man, dwelling within him, united to him, absolutely 
inseparable from him. But he cannot have this Ideal 
in his consciousness, till, in the purity of his spirit, 
he rises up to its conception mentally. This is a 
revelation to him, sometimes in early life, but often 
in age, forced out by unrequited love, and the burn- 
ing anguish of dead joys. Thus, man becomes dual 
in his nature first, afterwards in actual marriage with 
his Ideal, or love. 

This Ideal is seldom incarnated on this earth, at 
the same time the man is ; if it ever does so happen, 
no condition can keep them apart. When they meet, 
they intuitively know each other. This is marriage 
in its divine significance. Man and woman thus 
united by the "Holy Spirit " is eternal — but con- 
sidered separately they are not eternal entities, but 
are interchangeable, i.e., man is liable to become a 
woman, and woman is liable to become a man in some 
other birth. 

The man hater and the woman hater change places 
after two or three revolutions of the wheel of life. 



THE WILL. 207 



Human progress depends, then, upon will-culture — 
and the field to be cultivated is the loves, in which 
and from which all things grow. The will viewed as 
a mental faculty has its antagonist, which is Rever- 
ence. 

Once upon a time when intensely musing upon the 
antagonisms of the brain, I fell asleep — but it was 
not all sleep — when some one came to me, as "the 
stranger " came with the mirror. I did not see him, 
but he showed me a book. Opening it, he showed 
me this strange sentence : " The will is antagonized 
by reverence ! In the foretime the Gods, out of fear 
of man's ambition, created reverence/ ' I desired to 
take the book, but he would not permit me, but 
showed me many blank pages therein, saying : " not 
now." It was several years before I could accept 
the strange dogma. But it is true. 

We are taught that the will must be broken in 
early childhood, and in order to the salvation of the 
soul. The opposite is the truth. God does not love 
slaves nor cowards, and the child whose will is broken 
is of no earthly account. 

The loves must be tamed — broken, if necessary, 
by the will — guided by an enlightened under- 
standing. All will is pure power, and should be 
increased instead of being broken. In meditation 
there is strength, but in reverence there is weakness 
— a tacit acknowledgment of a superior. There is a 
a God ! Nay, many, but if they are superior to you 
"it is your own fault. You may have been a God 



2o8 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

yourself at some time, and you may be again with 
proper effort. That proper effort is not in humilia- 
tion. 

The will is represented in the mind as triune, hav- 
ing three faculties through which it manifests itself, 
as follows : 

I. Firmness — Determination — Stability. 
II. Self-esteem — Independence — Self-poise. 

III. Continuity — Tenacity — Persistence. 

A proper balance and harmony of these three con- 
stitute a perfect will. The weakness or excessive 
development of either one weakens the will. As 
intimated above, an enlightened understanding is the 
only true guide for the will. This enlightenment is 
illumination of the mind — clairvoyance. There are 
many degrees of lucidity, but the highest degree is 
the perception of principles — of " principalities and 
powers/ ' 

The inmost and the outermost of being is con- 
nected by the imagination. It stands between the 
will and the loves ; hence, all the operations of the 
will must be through the imagination. It is the 
" magic mirror' ' of the mind, through which the soul 
scans the horizon, or upon which the universe may 
be made to impinge — not in vague and shadowy 
forms, many-colored or kaleidoscopic, but in reality, 
either black or white. It is prolific; for herefrom 
comes all of art, science, literature and beauty, as 
well as the horrible, grotesque and sinster. 

Crimes are brooded over and hatched here in the 



THE WILL. 209 



imagination. In this fairy-land is death enthroned, 
for that which is born is the death of something 
else. This is magic ground from which things grow 
by the conjuring of the will. Here things dissolve 
themselves and expose their deformities ; and here 
hideous things are enrobed in garbs angelic. Here 
religion has its stronghold — for in this the Gods 
show themselves to man. Maligned, abused, scoffed 
at, the jeer and laughter-provoking thing yet rules 
the world. Disrobe the man of the imagination and 
what is he? A brute — worse than savage. His 
very flesh covers itself with hair, as if to hide its 
coarseness and vulgarity. 

But let the imagination loose, and the hair grows 
soft and fine, or disappears. The flesh glows with 
fires immortal ; the eye loses its savage glare, and 
man's robes are of the finest texture. The earth, 
under its rule, is no longer a howling wilderness, but 
is dotted all over with fairy-like splendors — its magic 
productions. Steam almost annihilates space, and the 
lightnings flash thought from pole to pole ahead of 
old time. This is all due to the dreamings of the 
imagination. 

On the shores of eternity's ocean are greater 
things waiting for some dreamer to espy and hand 
down to enrich mankind. All hail to the dreamers, 
poets, philosophers, preachers, writers and inventors ! 
They have always left their mark and always will, as 
an ineffaceable brand upon the face of humanity. 
Trust, aspiration and hope have their very roots in the 



2IO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

imagination. It is only by virtue of it that the good 
side of humanity in general can be discerned. 

The unimaginative are the doubtful, unbelieving 
and distrustful. Have they ever built anything de- 
sirable, or ever added anything of value to mankind ? 
Thomas Paine was not an unbeliever. He believed 
in God and humanity, and he left his mark upon this 
people that will be known and felt for long ages. 

He loved a principle, i.e., human liberty, and 
worked to establish it. Paine was a dreamer. In 
his imagination he saw equal rights, and if he lived 
in this age he would see woman's rights. 

Theories lead the van — practice comes slowly 
along, like a lumbering wagon, afterwards. The im- 
agination is an infinite field. There are many roads 
in it, and many jungles and angles. All the loves 
center here where they impinge upon the will. 

"And God saw that the imagining of man's 
heart was continually evil, ,, i. e., outward. Oh, that 
I might impress upon you the vast importance of 
looking within ! May not this be the closet into 
which Christ bade his disciples retire in prayer ? 
What is contemplation but imagination ? What is 
prayer but the aspirations of the soul ? And what 
are aspirations but images of the soul. How can we 
"pluck the mote out of our own eyes " in any other 
way than by looking within ? This plucking out of 
the mote is nothing but the development of clairvoy- 
ance — clear seeing. That is done by the imagina- 
tion. 



THE WILL. 211 



\ 



"If thine hand offend thee, cut it off," etc. — what 
is this but the analysis and destruction of passions 
that retard and hinder the development of the soul 
to the kingdom of power ? If diseases are ever 
healed by the imagination, is it not a divine gift — 
better far than medicine, and is it not best to culti- 
vate it ? If it will heal the sick, if it will make life 
any more pleasant, for God's sake let us have more 
of it. 

Three essential elements constitute perfect man, 
viz. : Will, Imagination and Love. These are the 
positive, negative and neutral. Imagination is the 
indifferent part of mind, corresponding to indifferent 
nature — " the door," already explained in previous 
chapters. It is the " Garden of Eden " out of which 
man was cast. The same tree of life is there still, 
guarded by a flaming sword which turns every way. 

What more beautiful type of fire than a " flaming 
sword " ? Fire-flame, that guards the way to the tree 
of life — consuming all impure things that approach 
the dread portals of the kingdom of power. The 
pure only are eternal. Purity is original — this is 
unchangeable. All originality comes to man through 
reverie : this is imagination. Man reaches God in the 
imagination. In it God walks and talks with man. 
It is the creative faculty — not in and of itself, but 
herein the will conjures things from the unknown, 
and compels them to appear to the consciousness — 
first, of himself ; secondly, of others. 

In the imagination, things, ideas, passions, hatreds, 



212 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

loves, vices, etc., may be destroyed — first, as realities 
within ; secondly, as obstacles outside of us. For 
instance, an enemy may be made sick, and gradually 
to die, or he may be suddenly killed, by the powerful 
will of an intensely imaginative man or woman. Or 
he may be tamed, subdued, and made a friend of 
through and by the same power. God pity the one 
who would prostitute such a power to a base or un- 
worthy purpose ! 

This is hard to believe, but the rationale is very 
simple to one of comprehension. But it is not my 
object to teach these things in this work, only so far 
as to point the road. 

x^There is little power among men on account of 
the want of will. There is plenty of obstinacy and 
unreasoning tenacity of purpose. This is due to 
firmness, which is the projecting or repulsive power 
of will. By the use of it we project ourselves — first, 
into the nerves and muscles ; secondly, into objects 
— obstacles that stand in our way. Its work is out- 
wardly. We waste our strength and lose ourselves 
in objects of love, hate, envy and pride. In this 
projection we leave ourselves empty. Emptiness, 
like filth, invites disease and death. Projection- — 
repulsion — produces death. {There is a sexual ar- 
cana here : let him who reads ponder well.) We die 
that others may have being. 

Firmness is what its name implies — hardness. 
"Firm as the rocks" expresses its real character. 
It hardens the nerves, muscles and very bones, and 



THE WILL. 213 



also affects the spirit in the same way, rendering it 
viscid and difficult of motion. That which should be 
fire emitted is but a glutinous mass of molten matter. 
Instead of emitting jets of fire, flametipped, that 
reach the soul — the empyrean — the throne of the 
living God — baptizing each other with fire and " the 
Holy Ghost,' ' cheering, comforting, exhilarating with 
divine life and vigor — drawing human souls together 
in the oneness of a divine love — we emit a force 
that is like water upon fire — destructive to all real 
life and happiness — repels man from man, and man 
from woman, in one universal divorce. Instead of 
the controlling, persuasive, binding power of will, we 
have the booming cannon, the dagger and revolver, 
and the rough-and-tumble fight of dogs. 

The "still, small voice " of wisdom is drowned in 
the deafening roar of countless blood-stained feet, 
hastening to tread out the wine of human life. In 
our great marts of commerce, hearts have no more 
pulsation than the metal that chinks. Firmness — 
the external of will — hardens everything ! Even 
human hearts rattle like rocks thrown together. 

Suppose love to be the only immortal thing : how 
much will be left of mankind after the fire has re- 
moved the impurities of it ? Not much. Then roll 
on your Juggernaut of mammon. Shout and hurrah 
for kings, priests, popes, bishops, honorables and 
aristocrats of every grade — your gods. Dress your- 
selves in your gaudy shrouds for one universal burial. 
Marshal your hosts for the grand carnival of death : 



214 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

for what matters the blood of ephemera ? Ye pass 
away like insects ! Another race is coming — one 
in whom this outward tumult of a boisterous will 
shall give place to silence and peace, and man shall 
live till he chooses to die. 

In reverence — this antagonist of will — all thrones 
and crowns take root. King-craft, priest-craft and 
hero-worship must fall together. This vampire trin- 
ity fattens upon the best blood of humanity. It 
makes slaves and minions of the masses. No wonder 
they all love and preach worship — it is food, raiment 
and idleness for them, and toil and rags for the 
human race. It debases mankind, because it robs 
them of self-respect — the central pivot of the will. 
The idea that you are beneath another cripples you. 

Selfness is nearest the soul — it is the very vitals 
of will. Confidence in self inspires self-respect. To 
take away either is like taking off a leg — we must 
walk on crutches. To feel inferior is to be so. To 
feel equal is to grow to be such. The proud and 
arrogant interiorly feel their weakness, and hence 
arrogate to themselves something foreign so as to 
inspire worship in others. 

The antagonist of self-esteem is love of approba- 
tion. This love of the approval of others is one 
branch of reverence. To be praised and flattered 
by a king is something grand, and to be coveted. 
Humble yourself in the dust for a smile of approval 
from one crowned. To secure the approval of heaven, 
humble and debase yourself. In other words, act 



THE WILL. 215 



the hypocrite, pretend humility to superiors, but to 
those beneath you be lord, king, duke, or God. 
Such is the effect of modern theological teachings. 

Self-esteem normally gives the feeling of self-re- 
liance, confidence and independence. It gives rise to 
manly equality and self-poise. It is the balance- 
wheel, the regulator, the pivot upon which manhood, 
like a compass, rests. 

Self is antagonized by others ; hence, he who gives 
himself up to please others, gives himself to his 
antagonist — viz., that which ruins him by throwing 
him out of balance. Be yourself; think yourself; 
learn of everything and of everybody ; be worthy of 
your own self-respect : for when you have secured 
that, the respect of others is certain. Be indepen- 
dent, but, in so doing, remember the rights of others. 
Rights are equal ; wrongs make inequalities. If you 
have any selfhood, consult that first of all. Secure 
in self-respect, you need not fear others, for God 
approves of self -honor. This is the only glory, and 
the only way to glorify God. 

Praise is a false wind — it blows no good. Fame ! 
What is it but a breath, shouting huzzas which, 
prolonged, die away in a hiss ? Breath of the rabble ! 
The unthinking herd ! One minute exalting you to 
heaven, the next trampling you in filth. And yet it 
is said God loves praise. The absurdity is too ap- 
parent. We cannot add anything to the Infinite. 
We can, however, join ourselves to the Infinite, and 
we are glorified thereby. This it is to " glorify 



2l6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

God in these bodies, which are His " — or ours in the 
glorifying. Thus we increase the selfhood — the 
foundation of all power — will. 

Inordinate self-esteem may have no self-respect at 
all. Self-respect is based in right, truth and justice. 
Hence, he who respects others and their rights, has 
self-respect. He who has no regard for the rights of 
others, although he may possess a powerful external 
will, has a weak will interiorly. He is like a tree 
with a large top, but whose trunk is rotten. Respect 
is the very foundation of love ; hence, self-respect 
leads to self-love or egotism. This is an excessive 
growth from a fruitful soil. Such need pruning. 

The will, like everything else in nature, grows 
outwardly to the weakening of its roots. Egotism is 
the fatal tendency of all aspirations. It is a weak- 
ness that must be guarded against. Self-approbation 
springs from the same source as love of the approval 
of others — viz., reverence. There is such a thing as 
self -worship. Egotism is to the will what the moss 
is to trees in "the sunny South' ' — it dwarfs and 
finally kills. Strip man of pretense and egotism 
(which is the same) and what is there left of him ? 
He who is puffed up and loaded with self-complacency 
and pride is rotten within. 

Self-gratification is the root of human action. As 
we grow we send out many branches, but self -gratifi- 
cation supports them all. No matter what pursuit 
we follow, or what course in life we pursue, that is 
the prime motive power. The will is made a slave 



THE WILL. 217 



to it. It is the fundamental principle of all religious 
systems. The so-called kingdom of heaven is based 
in it, and hell is filled with the devotees of self- 
gratification. Even Buddhism, which claims that 
there is no self or Ego in reality, holds out the in- 
ducement to its votaries of escaping to Nirvana, 
from the ceaseless and eternal succession of exist- 
ences. To this end the senses are attacked, and 
bodily or physical and mental gratification destroyed 
— in order to arrive at the gates of ecstasy and 
power — in order to cease to be* 

So, self is the basis of all, and the only God. 
Pleasure is the object of all, no matter what road is 
taken. Even the materialist finds his pleasure in the 
quiescence and the quintessence of matter. Men get 
religion through fear of the pains of hell, and in 
hope of the pleasures of heaven. The Hindoo 
mother tosses her babe into the murky waters of the 
Ganges to appease the wrath of her gods — in hopes 
of a reward. The Fakir of India puts a hook in 
the quivering flesh of his back and suspends himself 
for days in mid-air, or stands with hands clasped, in 
one position, till the limbs are paralyzed, and the 
finger-nails* grow through the palms of the hands, 
like claws — all in hope of power and pleasure other 
than that of the earthly senses. 

Some seek the ultimate of life in the carnival of 



* This is the exoteric of Buddhism ; the esoteric has never been written. 
Hardy translates their sacred books, but frankly admits that if Nirvana does not 
mean annihilation, he does not know what its meaning is. 



218 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

carnal passions, others in mammon worship, others in 
Government positions, politics, etc. Is all this 
universal hunger and thirst — this deathless longing 

— a mere hallucination ; or, is it the index finger of 
fate pointing to a great truth ? Is self capable of 
becoming infinite in power and pleasure — in this 
universal changing of conditions and polarities ? We 
of the old school of thought say yes. 

Of all the potencies of nature, the I, the Ego, the 
self, is the only thing beyond comprehension that has 
a positive and tangible existence. All things else are 
mere appendages of it. I speak of my soul, mind, 
spirit and body as of my coat, or any other property. 
But when I speak of myself — of "the think " and 
" the feel/' — I am at a loss for a definition. To go 
behind, beyond, above or below myself is impossible. 
I confront myself at every turn. It is as easy to 
comprehend God as myself, for the simple reason 
that I and the numeral one (i), are identically the 
same. 

Fusion and emanation are the only mathematical 
laws. Division is as arbitrary as addition. Divide a 
grain of corn and it loses its individuality. Plant the 
grain and it emits from itself whole ship-loads, but it 
loses itself in so doing. 

I am the creator of all my acts — they are laws. 
They flow out through effort of will — being pro- 
jections of the Ego — myself. Thus God meets man 

— is man — in the selfhood. The selfhood is God 
humanized. The selfhood of animals is God brutal- 



THE WILL. 219 



ized. We can understand how it is possible for man 
to produce that which is inferior to himself, but it is 
more difficult to conceive of his creating anything 
superior. How can the animal evolve man, who is 
superior in every essential ? How can man progress 
unless there is something above him to which he is 
near related ? This relation is found in the selfhood 

. — the central pivot of will. 

Be very careful, then, reader, how you trifle with 
yourself. Every thought and act which debases you, 
i.e., sinks you in your own inner consciousness, that 
which you wish to hide away in some dark corner of 
yourself — away from the eye of even yourself — 
debases God. The day comes speedily when he will 
sit in judgment upon your every thought and act — 
and that upon the throne of your own conscious self- 
hood. Firmness is the moving force or controlling 
power of this outward sensuous life — the power of 
aggression, of overcoming obstacles by physical force. 
It is the masculine of will. 

\ Self is neutral — hermaphrodite — both masculine 
and feminine. The feminine of will is represented 
by continuity. Self-esteem, phrenologically, is lo- 
cated just above the crown of the head; firmness, 
a little in front or above it, at the highest point of 
the cranium ; while continuity is just below self- 
esteem — inferior in position and diminutive in size, 
situated just above the social group, as a mother 
keeping guard over her children. 

The feminine is the attractive, and hence the pro- 



220 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

ductive, principle of nature — that principle which 
collects matter and combines it into forms. The 
principal office of continuity is the drawing of the 
spirit together — to a focus — preparatory X.o projection. 
There is always a concentration of force or energy 
in all effort, and the greater the concentration the 
greater will be the power manifested. 

The tension of the nerves and muscles is due to 
continuity — oneness of force and energy. It lays 
hold, as with hands, of each mental fibre, and guides 
the fiery steeds of spirit. Spirit obeys mind, but 
mind is under the will. Continuity is intenseness — 
continuativeness. Once directed to an object, it fas- 
tens itself to the spirit thereof, and, leech-like, sucks 
its very life out. If continuity be large, one becomes 
absorbed in any pursuit, object or passion, to the for- 
getfulness of other things. It cannot let go. This 
leads to insanity, which is simply the unbalancing of 
the will. 

Consciousness is a result of the poising or posing 
of the will : hence the polarization of the will is the 
true work of him who aspires to infinite conscious 
power. The will oscillates, similar to the needle of 
a compass, or the balance-wheel of a watch, or as a 
beam very nicely poised. Too much attraction in any 
given direction, or too much weight at one end of the 
scale, causes change of polarities, which is a change 
in the conscious life of thought, memory, feeling or 
sensation. When this change is extreme, the being 
is changed, the memory is lost, or judgment is de- 



THE WILL. 221 



throned, and yet the form of the being remains 
apparently the same; but the man himself has va- 
cated his throne and become a servant of some other 
power greater than he. 

- In view of this philosophical truth, we claim that 
there is no real sanity on this earth, and very little of 
it in spirit -life, beneath the abode of the gods. There 
are no perfect wills. Either firmness, continuity or 
self-esteem are too weak or too strong for proper 
balance and harmony. In this mundane sphere the 
masculine weighs down the feminine, and, worse even 
than all that, the central diamond of the soul — self- 
hood — is marred and corroded till there is no perfect 
oscillation or movement. 

We have moved, like a wagon, so long in one rut 
that it is almost impossible to get out of it. We have 
looked so long at the black side of God's sign-board 
— nature — that it has become luminous to us ; and 
at the white side — spirit — so little that it has lost 
its lustre and is forgotten, or supposed at most to be 
the night of nothingness. This is insanity. A man 
may be insane in whole or in part : in either case, the 
will, becoming unbalanced, has lost control in whole 
or in part. It has lost its grasp. The reversal of the 
poles of the will is why we have no memory of pre- 
vious states of existence. The will, by chance, acci- 
dent, sickness, or by intent, may oscillate back to the 
point it occupied in some former age, or previous state 
of being, and the person be exactly what he was spir- 
itually at that time, and lose all memory of this life. 



222 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

A psychologized person may be made to feel and 
w act like a dog, while under the influence. Why ? Just 
s because his will is thrown out of balance, and he is 
what we call, in other circumstances, insane. It is 
just such effects that we call insanity > In all similar 
cases of insanity where the psychologist is not seen 
or known, it is the spirit of some one unknown, either 
mortal or a spirit. At such times we say he is in- 
sane. The consciousness of being remains, but 
memory — the bridge over the chasms of time — 
is broken down, but not totally destroyed. It may, 
however, be reconstructed by the culture of the will, 
and all remembrances revived. 

Continuity is that power which leads to forgetful- 
ness of these surroundings — to abstraction and ab- 
sorption. It is when we become absorbed in some 
work or passion that we forget our weakness, or what 
we know of ourselves, and rise up to grandeur and 
glory. The greatest achievements, the most heroic 
deeds, the greatest discoveries that bless mankind, 
are all due to this little feminine faculty of will, which 
leads to insanity. 

The diffusion of spirit, the waste of life, the weak- 
ness and misdirection of energy, uncontrollable pas- 
sions, the want of psychological power, the pains and 
aches of the body — these are all due to the weakness 
of continuity, and excessive self-consciousness. This 
self-consciousness is a rut dug deep by demerit, in 
which we are all sunk — as in a quagmire. Purity 
of self is the only help for us, the only lubricator of 



THE WILL. 223 



the will, the only cleanser of this human time-piece. 
Purity — physical, mental, and spiritual — cannot be 
achieved by outward acts. It is an inward effort, an 
inward fire kindled by the action of continuity, which 
burns out the dross of these gross natures. This fire 
is kindled by the accumulation of spirit whenever and 
wherever attraction overbalances repulsion. 



224 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY POWERS. 

The great majority of our acts are involuntary. 
Even the acts which we think we do voluntarily, are 
mainly forced or coaxed out of us by an impulse. 
However this may be, we know we have volition, 
or voluntary power, small though it may be ; and 
however vast the involuntary may be, it is sub- 
servient to us. Call it what you like — Nature or 
God — it is our servant. When once this machine is 
set in motion, it automatically obeys. 

A musician, after he has mastered the use of his 
instrument, does not will each separate motion of 
his fingers ; his mind may be occupied with words 
he may be singing to the music, but his fingers move 
fast or slow in accord with the music, and his feet 
work upon the pedal without attention or thought. 
So it is with all we do. In doing a piece of work 
with which one is familiar, the thought wanders away, 
but still the work goes on. In sleep the voluntary is 
suspended, i.e., the mind is at rest ; and at times the 
will also seems to rest, or memory and judgment to 
be suspended. 



VOL UNTARV AND IN VOL UNTAR Y POWERS. 225 

Habits all become automatic, or involuntary. 
Habits of the body and mind are alike, and yet the 
voluntary seems to be of the mind : in fact, they are 
so closely allied, and so interwoven, that it is difficult 
to separate them, or to define them as separate 
powers. But we do know that all the light we have 
is of the mind, and all the power of it comes from 
the involuntary. Voluntarily we do as we think 
best, but the power to accomplish is the most of it. 
Thus it seems plain to me that the voluntary powers 
are merely a thought we have, which thought is all 
we have to guide us. It is possible that this thought 
may be so cultivated and enlarged as to become as 
automatic as any habit, and express itself as any 
involuntary power, even in our sleep. 

Language is a mere matter of culture or habit ; 
and so of thought, or any of the bodily functions. 
Indigestion may be cured ; torpid liver made to act ; 
and constipation of the bowels overcome, by paying 
constant attention to regularity. By paying little or 
no attention to the movement of the bowels, thus 
breaking up nature's habits, their warnings become 
less and less, and, in time, habits of constipation or 
inaction intervene. But if you will have a regular 
time for the evacuation, and pay strict attention 
thereto, providing an opportunity, whether there is 
an inclination or not, nature will in time listen to 
your demand, and furnish the power to remove all 
obstructions, and give life to the torpid tissues. 
Such is the force of habit. 



226 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

This new life comes through an effort of the will 
— first, voluntarily, but afterwards as an involuntary- 
power or habit. When it has become habitual, the 
bowels will notify you of the time, and insist upon 
your paying attention. It is the same with eating 
and drinking : if you eat three times daily, you will 
be hungry at those regular times ; but if you have 
no regular time for eating, hunger will not come till 
you think of it. To think of food as of something 
loathsome will kill hunger. To break in upon the 
regularity of a habit is to destroy it. To pay atten- 
tion to anything is to become its slave. Sexual 
excesses are habits of thought, depending upon 
regularity for existence. So long as it is a habit, it 
will demand and enforce attention ; but turn the 
thought to something else, and the voice of the habit 
gradually grows weaker and weaker, till in time it will 
take an effort of thought and the conjuring of the 
will to restore it. 

Small as the voluntary powers may be — perhaps 
a mere thought, yet it is all there is of us, and our 
weal and woe depend upon their use. By use the 
voluntary becomes the involuntary. Absent-minded- 
ness is indicative of the sinking of the voluntary into 
the involuntary. Such persons are more indifferent 
to outward things than those who are always " wide- 
awake/ ' This is, indeed, the beginning of trance, 
wherein some of the very finest orations are delivered. 

This "wide awake" life is a mere habit, which is 
destroyed by the creation of another, viz., sleep. 



VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY POWERS. 22J 

Sleep is a closing of the eyes to outward things, and 
the turning of the sight inward. It is the same in 
trance. The former is a sleep, or a partial sleep, of 
the consciousness ; the latter is a higher degree of 
consciousness : for the full wakefulness of the soul's 
powers is in a union of the voluntary with the invol- 
untary. This is effected by magnetism, and some- 
times in natural sleep ; then we have somnambulism, 
or sleep-walking, if the soul is unable to quit the 
body ; but if the soul is able to quit the body, we 
have prophetic visions, or the solving of difficult 
problems, or the visiting of distant places, spirit- 
worlds, etc. But in whatever way sleep or trance 
may be induced, it produces a degree of insensibility 
in the body. 

The deeper the sleep, the more insensible the body 
becomes. Mesmeric sleep is next to death. This 
may be self-induced, or through the agency of an 
operator. Calmness and tranquillity are necessary to 
its production, the same as in natural sleep. Calm- 
ness allows the soul to expand, and this produces 
sleep and trance, wherein the body becomes insensi- 
ble. There are two ways of producing nervous in- 
sensibility : one I have described ; the other is pro- 
duced by means of intense activity or excitement. 
Fits, in which sensibility is lost, are produced by ex- 
citement — the cause sometimes visible or known 
(or, at least, supposed to be), but oftener unknown. 

We know that catalepsy, common to Methodist 
revivals, known as "the power, " is induced by excite- 



228 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

ment. Children fall down in fits through the ex- 
citement of fear. In intense anger the nerves have 
little or no feeling. Indeed, there is an insanity 
comes through anger in which there seems to be 
neither sympathy, reason nor feeling. Many a man 
has been maimed, wounded, or even materially in- 
jured in a fight without being at all sensible of it till 
the excitement was over. So long as the tension of 
the nerves continues there is no pain. The clinched 
fist of an angry man feels nothing. The Indian, 
undergoing untold tortures at the hands of his cap- 
tors, sings his war-song and laughs in the face of his 
tormentors. Michael Servetus, being roasted over 
a slow fire made of green wood, by John Calvin, 
composed the following, which he repeated to his 
tormentor, with a smile of happiness on his face : 

w This side enough is toasted ; 
Turn me, tyrant, and eat ; 
For, whether raw or roasted, 
I am the better meat." 

The Christian martyrs, while being burned at the 
stake, sang, prayed and exhorted ; assuring the by- 
standers that it was pleasant " to die for the Lord." 
In view of these facts, and what we know of ecstasy 
and the insensibility of the mesmerized subject, is it 
not at least reasonable to suppose that the will is 
master of sensation as well as motion ? There is no 
pain to the strong will. Many a man has endured 
surgical operations without the use of anaesthetics or 
bonds, and without a movement of muscle or nerve. 



VOL UNTAR Y AND INVOL UNTARY PO WERS. 2 29 

Therefore, if pain can be partially subdued by the 
will, it may be wholly so. 

A man is made far stronger and more enduring by 
excitement ; and the deepest and most power-and- 
health-producing excitement comes from the calming 
of passions and the awakening of the higher faculties. 
There is a spiritual excitement, far more potent and 
exhilarating than the excitement of any of the pas- 
sions, in which ecstasy is passed and the soul escapes. 
It is then that these bodies are proof to the elements, 
and command the respect of even wild beasts. 

The Rah at of India seeks some jungle or lonely 
place, or some dangerous place by the side of some 
swamp or lagoon, infested by monstrous reptiles, 
where man fears to intrude ; here he composes him- 
self for his meditations, and goes calmly into an 
unconscious state, while monsters crawl out and lie 
down by his side, and sleep also. Never was one 
known to be harmed by them. (See Isis Unveiled.) 

Is not this the same power by which Daniel com- 
manded the respect of the lions in their den ? The 
full power of the will does not manifest itself in our 
normal state ; there must be an excitement of some 
kind in order to call into play all our powers. The 
full measure of power is not in the tension of the 
nerves and muscles ; it is in the tension of the inner 
man or spiritual body. This is not a rousing up as 
of anger, and a propulsion of the spirit outward, but 
rather a letting go of the nerves — a resignation of 
the soul as in sleep. This is possible only in habit. 



230 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

True culture gives resignation, which, pushed on 
to extremes, gives power to withstand fire. The 
Acolyte for the Priesthood of Buddhism must pos- 
sess super-mundane powers ere he can be admitted. 
I have been told by a gentleman who was born in 
India, and lived there until he was twenty-one years 
of age, that when they apply for Priesthood they are 
tested by being required to walk over a long bed of 
live coals of fire with their naked feet, to do it with- 
out hurry, and to come off at the other end with- 
out a singe or smell of fire ; if they fail they are not 
admitted, but are sent back to their practice of medi- 
tative rites. 

D. D. Home, one of our own time and country, 
has manifested this power, as well as that of levita- 
tion, by virtue of which Jesus walked upon the 
water. I might multiply facts " ad infinitum" if it 
were the intent of this work. The past and present 
are both full of the proof. Search for it, — not alone 
in the Scriptures of the olden time, but in the living 
testimony of the present. The will is a magical 
power ; but its highest magic is in letting go. 

The strong, well-balanced man accepts things as 
they come with a spirit attuned to the sweet melodies 
of creative power ; and weeps not over blighted joys 
or withered hopes. He looks above and beyond these 
-^hings, and his soul is filled with rest thereby. He 
does not essay to control others, for he has as much 
as he can do to control himself. By this means he 
converts his enemies into friends, who come to him, 



VOLUNTARY AND INVOLUNTARY POWERS. 231 

as to an oracle, for counsel. His control is far greater 
than that of one whosevwhole life is spent in trying 
to control others. The gigantic evils of this life 
come from the desire to rule others — or to make 
others do as you wish. Counsel is far better than 
rule. Let each do as he likes, but scatter light and 
knowledge of the true way to happiness and power. 
^ Reader, if you have lost youth and happiness — 
let go ! If friends have proved false and ungrateful 

— let go ! If your heart is torn by unrequited love 

— let go ! If you are poor — let go ! If you are 
wealthy — let go ! If Providence forsakes you — 
let go ! If you love life — let go ! If you are tired 
of life — let go ! If you look back upon our life's 
journey with regrets — let go ! For " He that 
would save his life shall lose it, and he that would 
lose his life shall save it." 



232 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



WILL-CULTURE. 



Let him who aspires to power commence by a 
close and critical analysis of himself. As will is the 
extraordinary of man, its culture is the culture of the 
entire man, and the regeneration of him — or another 
creation. The methods of it will be found as extraor- 
dinary as God himself — for how can a thing culti- 
vate itself without God's help ? And God's methods 
are not our methods. 

The three great principles of the selfhood, from, 
by and through which all actions come, are ( i ) Love ; 
(2) Imagination; (3) Will. The Imagination is 
neutral, as indifference or nature ; Will is masculine ; 
Love is feminine. As a husbandman must till the 
soil in order to make it productive, so must a man 
culture his loves in order to produce will-power. 
As a slave must first overcome his master before 
he can be free, so must the will overcome its loves : 
hence love is the way of freedom, of regeneration, 
and power. 

Self-analysis shows impurities which must, as a 
primary step, be removed. There can be no progress 
without vastation. The old habits, vices, follies, 



WILL-CUL TURE. 233 



modes of thought, loves, hates, envy, jealousies, covet- 
ousness, fear, pride and egotism must all die and be 
buried far out of sight as a preparatory step to soul- 
growth ; as will is cultivated and made strong in the 
subduing of those things which limit its freedom 
and power. Purity is the only thing that cannot be 
destroyed ; therefore, the purity of love, will and 
wisdom are immortal. 

It is only the semblance of real things which dies 
or changes ; hence, that which is supposed to be real 
love, or real will, or real wisdom, is only the sem- 
blance of the real, for they change or die. Thus in 
the regeneration, the semblance must pass away to 
give place to the real. These bodies are mere reflec- 
tions of ourselves, with which we, seeing them in 
the mirror or mirage of nature, fall in love and, em- 
bracing, die. 

This law is the same in relation to sex-love — 
we love the reflex of ourselves which we see in the 
mirror as woman. This is not real love, for its 
operations being downward, we propagate only our 
kind, or conditions, or emanations, which are antag- 
onistic to us ; while real love propagates new atoms 

— parts of a divine body, unchangeable and eternal 

— its operations are upward, and its emanations 
mingle in the essence of God. 

The infinite is all power, and it is man's field of 
operation. It encompasses him round about ; it bends 
to him with anything for which he asks ; but we must 
work for what we want. " Not every one that saith, 



234 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Lord ! Lord ! shall enter the Kingdom ; but he that 
doeth" — i.e., he that worketh with a will in the right 
direction. Now the road to power lies through the 
perfection of our nature, which consists first in the 
attainment of duality. I have already spoken of 
ideal love, of its conception, growth and union, or 
marriage in the spirit. Now, the true methods of 
will-culture have for their object growth. Soul- 
growth is inward, by letting go of outward things, 
and looking forward to the realization of a true life 
in which true love appears as one with the will, or 
the female united to the male in real durable oneness 
of being, or marriage. 

There can be no union of objects ; therefore, man 
and woman, being separated entities, are not one — - 
neither can they be — on this earth ; and marriage is 
but a semblance or type of a reality, or changeless 
condition, as a union of two in one, or two in spirit. 
Harmony must be first had in the individual ere it 
can be effected with another, and for this reason a 
lifetime of effort or culture is necessary in which 
things inharmonious or at variance with each other 
are to be avoided. 

Owing to the inharmonies of marriage (and the 
loss of power therein) the Essenes and Rosicrucians 
of old discarded marriage as something unreal, and 
lived lives of celibacy. For this reason the Buddh- 
istic and Catholic priesthood are not permitted to 
marry. Further reasons are set forth in regard to 
the nature of sin, to which the reader is referred. 



WILL-CUL TURE. 235 

In order to destroy that which retards the soul in its 
flight, viz., sin, its opposite or antagonist must be 
strengthened ; to this end the whole mind must be 
given up to the contemplation of such things as make 
the soul sick and disgusted with sin. 

This creates another emotion antagonistic to love, 
viz., feelings of disgust at that after which the world 
runs mad. Love is an emotion. Will is motion, but 
love is a reflex of it, or an emotion, or wo-man, because 
emotions ruin the will or the man in leading it into 
captivity. The object of love is to join itself to the 
will in order to increase power to enjoy, as a loving 
wife works for and delights in the happiness of her 
husband. So woman should not unite with man save 
for the purpose of begetting life, spirit, power. In 
true marriage, according to the divine intention of it, 
there are no children, and no disease ; neither do 
they die. 

To have an ideal elevated, pure and full of rest and 
unalloyed pleasure, is to have the pain of disappoint- 
ment in realization. It is to kindle a consuming fire 
at your very vitals, which you are obliged to quench 
by the will, because no heart answers your heart- 
throbs and because all fall short of your ideal love. 
This is for him to suffer who aspires to be some- 
thing more than the common. There is no greatness 
not born of pain, and there is no pain greater than 
that of a heart bruised ; for it is so soft and flexible, 
that it will not break. 

Sexual love has the strongest hold of and of the 



236 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

passions ; it is the hardest for the will to turn from 
its lust. The effort to idealize love in the imagina- 
tion is analogous to that of the libertine and de- 
bauchee — only one is chaste while the other is 
impure. The onanist sees in his imagination the 
object of his lust, and thus acting upon his emotions 
pollutes himself. It is the same with the libertine. 
These emotions that destroy power and the soul are 
created by an inward action; and in proportion to 
the power of concentration is the spirit drawn within, 
condensed and projected, and thus the life, spirit and 
power thrown away. But this wasted virility, though 
lost to the man, is not lost in nature, for it is a pro- 
toplasm from which spring infusoria, worms, insects, 
reptiles, etc., which are a curse to the earth and man- 
kind. Your ideal love may not be a very near 
approach to true love ; but your highest conception 
of womanly beauty, purity, goodness, truth, grace and 
excellence, coupled with form and action, is your 
estimate of it, and as such is your kingdom of power 
towards which you grow rapidly or slowly as the case 
may be. 

Control must begin at home — in the selfhood. 
But how, or in what manner, can a thing culture and 
control itself? How can the will regulate its own 
action ? The will has the nearest approach to free- 
dom of anything of which we know. Love is limited 
by the sensibilities, and wisdom, by that which we 
learn ; but will, being free from emotion, is free to 
produce emotions according to its love and wisdom. 



WILL-CUL TURE. 237 

So love and wisdom are the shackles of the will. 
Now we do not control that which we love, but that 
which we love controls us. Hence the necessity of 
subduing love as the beginning of the road to power. 
We do not destroy love, but we wean it from sensu- 
ous objects. Thus weaned, it becomes as one with 
the will in its freedom, and the flights of the soul. 
This is the At-one-ment — (Atonement). Love can- 
not be purified. " There is no impure love," said 
P. B. Randolph. What we call purifying love is 
merely the vastating of pretences. Love itself is hon- 
est ; but this world's love is but a pretence of what 
it is not. It is the shame, in order to hide which, 
God clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of animals. 
If all the shame were removed from mankind, the 
little love left would be very small indeed. 

Will-culture is a thing altogether antagonistic to 
general religious ideas ; for the will is generally con- 
sidered of the " evil one " — to be broken and crushed. 
With this idea I am at variance. We have far too 
little power, and to increase it is the acme of all 
religion. It is in the false direction of power wherein 
evil exists, not in the power itself. To enlighten the 
mind, then, or to culture the imagination, is to con- 
trol man's creative powers or loves and guide them in 
the right direction. 

All culture must begin at home. Begin by a re- 
construction of yourself. If you feel that you are 
superior to others, disabuse yourself of that idea at 
once. In arrogance there is no growth of the soul. 



238 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

To feel as you really are, is to feel very weak and 
very small. In order to rise above the common level, 
you must be real. To feel equal is to feel real and 
to be real. Let every man have his opinions in 
freedom — the rights you claim, freely grant to others. 
Thus you pluck the motes out of your eye. Judge 
no man, for you know not his motives. The free- 
dom you claim for yourself, that grant to others, even 
in thought and feeling — for freedom is the principle 
of growth — the first and the last, and the only prin- 
ciple in existence. He who is bound by love, hate, 
or any passion whatever, is not free. How can he 
then expect to have power ? 

Power only comes by freedom. To be free, then, 
necessitates a cutting loose of the bonds of slavery. 
To love nothing, to hate nothing, to have no likes or 
dislikes, to have no prejudices, no tastes, no prefer- 
ences — this it is to be free. The little power we 
have comes from freedom. Now let him, who expects 
to culture his will, bear in mind this fact — that it 
cannot be done for a selfish or mercenary purpose. I 
am aware that one part of it, viz., firmness and self- 
esteem may be cultivated and increased, but it is not 
real culture of the will after all, but a throwing out of 
balance of the will, which is destructive in the main. 

All power, to be lasting, must descend from the 
higher to the lower, as a baptism ; and this descent 
is accomplished by and through the feminine of will 
— viz., Continuity. The second effort of will is in the 
propulsion of force into the nerves — as in grasping 



WILL-CULTURE. 239 

by the hand or in striking a blow. But the first 
effort is in the gathering together of force before 
striking. The latter is expansive like the inflation of 
the lungs ; while the former is exhaustive as in the 
expiration of the breath. 

Inflation is the beginning or foundation of all 
power. This is concent rat ive, and involves the exer- 
cise of continuity. The greater the concentration, 
the greater will be the power manifested — either in 
physical, mental, or spiritual effort. In making a 
great physical effort, there must be a stimulant or an 
excitement, in order to produce a manifestation of 
the full power of the individual. This excitement is 
a mental effort in which the mind expands to its ut- 
most tension of energy, feeling, or want of feeling, 
a resolution is formed, born or begotten, and the 
nerves and muscles become braced — filled to over* 
flowing with force. 

The whole person expands, as a prospective mother, 
and is eager to deliver itself of its superabundant 
force, energy or burden. When full to overflowing 
with anger, love or any passion, we are eager to 
express it : but the first effort is to be full. This is 
a mental effort in which the will gets its excitement 
from dwelling upon wrongs, or love, in the imagina- 
tion. This " brooding' ' over wrongs, or dwelling 
upon things in thought involves the exercise of con- 
tinuity. From this it is known that the real power 
of will comes from the feminine part of it, viz., con- 
centration or continuity. 



240 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

It is also evident that the more one believes in the 
reality of the wrong or love, the fuller they will be- 
come of love or anger, and the power of its manifes- 
tation will be proportionally greater. Now this is 
exactly the case with all occult or spiritual power. 
The excitement of the will comes from dwelling upon 
an idea or an object to be attained and in the resisting 
of the excitement of the passions. In fact, the cul- 
ture of the will is in the alternate excitement of the 
passions, and in subduing the same without expres- 
sion. 

For instance : — some one wrongs you a little ; 
you seize upon it as if it were a sweet and delicious 
morsel, and by constantly thinking of it in its most 
aggravating features, and by dwelling upon it, you 
work yourself into a mental fever in which you feel 
like "knocking down," "kicking," "shooting," and 
" dragging out," — but you do no such thing ; and 
before your passion is too strong for you, you turn 
your mind to another feature of the wrong, and be- 
gin to look upon it as not quite so hideous, after all, 
and gradually it grows less and less, as the excite- 
ment cools down. 

You have not manifested this to the world, but it 
has had an effect upon you. Your will power has 
grown in the exercise. Physical power grows by 
manifestation, but spiritual power, by silent suppres- 
sion or repression. If you express your power physi- 
cally, it is lost to you spiritually. Hence the motto : 
" Silence is strength." 



WILL-CULTURE. 24 1 

In thus exciting yourself, and then controlling 
yourself, you are creating power, as well as teaching 
the involuntary powers obedience. After practicing 
for awhile this exercise, you will find you are becom- 
ing very excitable, and you can excite yourself even 
without any outward provocation. A jealous person 
can easily become half crazy about nothing. In this 
manner you learn how to create emotions of a low 
order first, and then you gradually step up to emo- 
tions of a higher order, such as mirth, love, pity, 
rapture ; but of all creative emotions, that of love 
transcends all else. 

To gaze at a dead body with worms crawling in 
and out, and look at it as human, and think that that 
is the end of all flesh, and that you will be the same 
in a short time, disgusts one fearfully with the follies 
of life, and tames the passions of any man who thinks 
at all. This helps the will to gain the ascendency ; 
but after seeing it once or twice, you can see it in 
your mind at any time, and thus subdue all low and 
unworthy thoughts and feelings — this strengthens 
the will. " He who keeps death in view seldom does 
a wrong." 

The will that cannot create emotions by its own 
effort is weak : it needs a stimulant. To keep your 
heart young and full of tenderness and love for your 
companion, think of her as when you wooed and won 
her. To destroy your love, think of it in connection 
with something disgusting and low, and it will speed- 
ily die ; but do not be deceived ; some things die 



242 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

very hard. Habits take hold of the vitals. Many 
who read these lines may be able to see what they 
desire in the mind without physical contact. Such 
can develop power rapidly. 

Others, again, will need some aggravating circum- 
stances to stir the emotions. To provoke another to 
anger with words, looks and gestures, and then sub- 
due yourself with a thought, and control and subdue 
the other by the creations of mirth or grief, is a good 
exercise, but a dangerous one. 

Who can stand and calmly take a blow without 
resentment ? But it was in view of this same sub- 
ject that Jesus said : " If a man smite you on one 
cheek, turn the other also." Habits are hereditary 
as well as acquired. They, like diseases, are hard to 
cure. All habits of the ordinary man tend outward, 
and hence are weakening. To be more than ordinary, 
work against habits. This is done only by creating 
other and opposite habits. 

" Does thine eye offend thee, pluck it out ! " or 
train it not to see objects external, by turning it in- 
wardly. Perhaps you are fond of some particular 
article of diet — you love the taste of it. Pork, for 
instance. You first satisfy yourself that it feeds 
scrofula and the humors of the blood, and you desire 
to leave it off. You go to work to kill the taste for 
it by becoming disgusted mentally with the thing 
you delight in. It is done by meditation. Imagine 
a stomach filled with flesh fermenting and working 
as do maggots in carrion. Flesh in the stomach, as 



WILL-CULTURE. 243 

in the sun, becomes putrid. It is nothing but a bit 
of corpse dressed and cooked, that I am eating. Be- 
hold the market, hung round and round with corpses, 
not unlike my own, if it were dressed like these. A 
little while ago they were moving, living beings, like 
myself. I know that I become like that upon which 
I feed. See the swine. The scavenger of the filth 
of living things; what a loathsome object, and I am 
his scavenger. " I am naught but a sepulchre full of 
rotten flesh/ ' 

Behold the butcher ! A living corpse cutting up 
dead ones, while others stand eagerly looking on, 
with mouths watering like dogs for the feast of 
rottenness. See the carts hurrying away to the 
meat shops, laden with corpses yet warm with life, 
their naked, mutilated limbs mutely appealing to 
heaven against the horrid butchery, while a demon in 
human form sits driving to the charnel house. 

By persistence in such thoughts, the taste changes, 
and the stomach heaves at the sight or thought which 
we conjure in regard to food or anything else. 
Thought is sight, feeling, tasting, smelling, etc., all 
in one. The taste changes, as our thoughts change 
in regard to it. Just so with all the passions. 

There is no virtue where there is no temptation ; 
no merit where there is no demerit ; no grace where 
there is no sin ; no power where there are no obsta- 
cles. The greater the obstacle overcome, the greater 
the glory of the achievement. The filthiest thing con- 
tains the most life ; but this life is worthless till utilized. 



244 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

The will is the husbandman, who, if needs be, 
drains his ground, enriches, plows, harrows, plants 
and cultivates his crop. If he be not slothful, he 
shall, according to nature's laws, reap his harvest. 
So with the aspirant to power ; he must prepare his 
body, his blood must be filtered, and the acids and 
alkalis harmonized, and the flesh made soft, sweet 
and glowing. Drugs will not do this. The body 
must be reached through the mind, or not at all. 

It is a well-known fact that the imagination affects 
the body. Fear, disgust, and in fact, all the passions 
have an effect upon the blood. One may accelerate 
the action of the heart, while another retards it. All 
the passions get their excitement from the imagina- 
tion. So the imagination is the connecting link 
between the body and the soul. It is the door be- 
tween the visible and the invisible worlds of sense. 
To purify the body, then, the will must affect it 
through the imagination. The imagination corrupts 
the blood ; why may it not purify it as well ? That 
we do not know how this is done is no argument 
against this proposition. Love tinges the cheek with 
the glow of magnetic health ; fear congeals the blood ; 
disgust produces neuralgia, and lust produces con- 
sumption. Hate dries up and coagulates the humors ; 
covetousness produces dyspepsia, — and so on to the 
end of the chapter. 

Every passion, and even thought and reason have 
their roots in the imagination. The effect which things 
have upon us depends upon the way we look at 



WILL-CULTURE, 245 



them. Beauty and deformity spring alike from the 
imagination. We receive the spirit of a thing by 
looking at it — smelling, tasting, hearing — and more 
than all by thinking of it. We get the grossness of 
food by eating it, but the real life of it is extracted 
by the thoughts we have of it. In other words the 
ideas we have in regard to the quality and use of 
food impart to it something akin to themselves. 

Thus the body may be gradually changed by diet ; 
not so much by quality as by quantity ; for the will 
imparts any desired quality. 

A very, sensitive person suffers nausea at the sight 
of that which is loathsome — to conjure up that thing 
in the imagination has the same effect. Many a per- 
son is afflicted with dyspepsia and other disorders 
from a settled conviction that it is inevitable. The 
idea that you will cure yourself is better than medi- 
cine. The idea that you will eat simply because you 
are obliged to do so in order to live, and not for the 
pleasure of eatings is better in reality than food or 
fasting ; but to eat, drink and love for the sole object 
of attaining immortal power, and not for the sensuous 
gratification of the appetites or passions, is to work 
upon the mind, blood, body and spirit as God works 
— downward. This downward operation eliminates 
the grossness, and leaves the essences or life for your 
use. 

Remember this simple thing : All impurities re- 
suit from compounding, or combining different sub- 
stances > fluids > magnetisms and spirits in one. Purity 



246 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

is oneness. The simpler the diet the better ; one 
thing is better than three, four or a dozen. Never 
eat for pleasure, eat only when hungry, and stop 
while still hungry. To test your power of will, think 
of something sickening as you gaze upon your food ; 
if your stomach rejects the food from that cause, you 
have no need of any more food at that time — cease 
eating at once. If you drop your knife, fork or 
spoon, or have any such mishap at the table, cease 
eating. Never think how your food tastes, and never 
indulge in talk and laughter while eating ; let your 
thoughts be fixed upon the object to be attained, 
whether it be the elimination of disease, grossness, 
bad habits, etc., or the building up of the dual divine 
nature wherein all power resides. 

The one great curse of civilization (?) is gormandiz- 
ing. We need very little food if the truth were 
known ; just enough should be taken into the stomach 
to form a nucleus of attraction for the spirit to mate- 
rialize itself, or condense and form new particles of 
blood, nerve and flesh. Behold ! the miracle of the 
loaves and fishes as an illustration of this principle. 
Food multiplies itself in the half-filled stomach, when 
it is left vacant from a principle ; but when the stom- 
ach is full there is no room for multiplication or 
condensation to take place, and a filthy, rotting, 
destructive process takes the place of divine and life- 
improving process. 

The life of the body comes from the spirit, and 
not wholly from the food we take in at the mouth. 



WILL-CULTURE. 247 



The full stomach crowds out the spirit, and there 
is no room left for the action of the spirit. Besides, 
the spirit feeds upon that which is in harmony with 
it in its passage to and from, and radiation about the 
body, and passing into the body deposits therein that 
life which it has accumulated. 

Look at Dr. Tanner, fasting forty days ! * Look 
at the fast of Jesus for forty days, and then behold 
Gautama Buddha, living seven years alone in the 



* Says Dr. Alexander Wilder of Orange, N. J., in a letter to me after the first 
edition of this work was published : 

" I notice that you mention Dr. Tanner. I watched with him several times, and 
was present at the end. Of the genuineness of the matter there is no room for two 
opinions. No man willing to be candid can possibly doubt the evidence. That 
' Science gained nothing by it ' (as often asserted), was solely because the men who 
dictate what shall be regarded as science, determined in advance that no observa- 
tion or fact ascertained should be accepted. Yet enough was observed in 1880, to 
have preserved the life of Gen. Garfield in 1881, if it had been put to use. * * * I 
was somewhat disappointed in my observation of Dr. Tanner. Having read of 
trances, ecstatic visions, and intimate communications with the interior world, in 
connection with prolonged fasts, I hoped to witness something of the sort now. I 
did not. His mind was always clear, but his temper was somewhat irritable. The 
senses became exquisitely keen. For 15 days he drank nothing ; he was a distressed 
sight. He actually gained weight for a day or two after resuming. But he was 
very sensitive ; he could ill tolerate Croton water and went daily to a spring in 
Central Park for a supply. He also complained of the air at Clarendon Hall — 
very justly. The spectators would have worn me out ; how he endured them I 
cannot well surmise. Yet several individuals did remark a loss of strength after 
being near him. This fact of the fast is not so very remarkable. But for our 
abominable materialism we could easily perceive the matter. Griscom, in Chicago, 
fasted 45 days. The Hindoo Fakirs and others do the same. Perhaps the powers 
most valuable are hidden. We make too much account of meat and drink, and far 
too little of the forces about us that transcend these. A tree will grow and not 
exhaust the soil materially. A coral reef is a mass of lime gathered where no lime 
is. A chick in the egg gets a skeleton from substance that chemistry does not 
reveal the existence of. The diatomes built a mass of flinty stone under Petersburg, 
in Virginia. I opine that living things transmute forces into matters, by changing 
their polarity, so that the problem, imputed incorrectly to the alchemists, of trans- 
mutation, is solved by the living beings of this earth. * * * There is a brother- 
hood of true men, and they recognize each other by a pass-word , more expressive 
than any symbolism of a society. # * * " 



248 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

forests of Thibet, subsisting wholly upon berries and 
roots ; and at last throwing himself at the foot of 
"the sacred Bodhi tree," vowing that he would not 
again taste food until he had achieved his object, viz., 
the attainment of supernatural energy, and when 
so weak with the long fast that he could no longer 
stand upon his feet, how the "Dewas" (celestial 
beings) came and fed and nursed him. Did he attain 
his object? Look at the results and then judge. 
He lived about five hundred years before Christ, and 
died when he got ready (at the age of eighty years) ; 
founding the greatest religion that man has ever 
known, whose adherents numbered a few years ago 
the enormous figure of three hundred and sixty-nine 
millions, and that without violence or bloodshed. 
(See Hardy's "Eastern Monachism.") 

Those who eat the least have the best health and 
last the longest. Life is sustained more from the 
atmosphere and electricity than from the solid food 
taken into the stomach. It is the essence of things 
which is of greatest value, and the essence is not 
limited to the solid substance, but radiates round 
about as its aura — intangible to our dull senses, but 
nevertheless existing. It is upon the aura of things 
that the spirit feeds, and according to the attractive 
power of the soul is its pasture. So long as the spirit 
is fat it will feed the body. 

The glutton has a weak, lean, hungry spirit, and 
little will-power. The diseased forms which meet the 
eye at every turn, are evidence of weak, small, spirit- 



WILL-CUL TURE. 2 49 

less will — and collapsed and angular souls. They 
present a ravenous multitude, a standing mockery of 
nature, and a clamorous rebuke of the wisdom of an 
infinite Creator. When diseased, in pain and trouble, 
how nice it is to lay the blame on fate, nature or 
God. But if we would only stop and think that we 
have to suffer from the malignity or mistakes of the 
relentless power which compels us to exist, and that 
no prayers are answered save those of the will, we 
would philosophically shoulder the power to be as 
much as to do and to suffer. 

We could then see clearly that the diseases, fail- 
ures and mistakes ascribed to fate are due to our 
own ignorance, weakness, and headstrong folly. We 
have to bear the consequences of our acts — why not 
claim the credit of causation ? So long as we can 
ascribe our acts to circumstances, nature, fate, or 
God, we trust to luck and drift like bubbles upon the 
frothing deep — effortless. 

It takes effort to accumulate property ; it takes 
effort to be a man under all circumstances ; but it 
costs no effort to be a beggar or a knave. This has 
become so common that it has given rise to the trite 
saying, that "man is prone to do evil as the sparks 
are to fly upward." It is far easier to fall than to 
climb ; but it hurts fearfully at the bottom. The 
labor of climbing is pleasant after you get used to it ; 
for the higher you climb the more vigorous you be- 
come, and the purer the atmosphere. Why ? Because 
the climber is ascending towards life, while he who 



2 SO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

falls is descending towards pain, disease, weakness, 
darkness, death and nonentity. Will-culture is the 
royal ladder, anchored in God's throne, and reaching 
to every soul. 

You cannot carry much grossness, either of body, 
mind or spirit, up that ladder. Grossness is always 
positive, and very difficult to become negative. But 
the greater the grossness, the greater the power when 
the victory is won. Paul understood this. He says 
in substance, " Where sin abounds, grace doth much 
more abound.' ' I have already explained the reason. 
It takes a great soul to excel in anything. Great 
criminals are always men of greatness, misdirected. 

The mind is a wandering vagrant ; like the eye, it 
wanders restlessly in quest of new things. But "let 
your eye be single/' and your mind will follow after. 
Look steadily at a speck on the wall — think steadily 
of one thing — and gradually there steals over you 
strange sensations, as clouds and flashes of light pass 
before your vision. To make the mind single — as 
an eye with the motes plucked out sees only one ob- 
ject — limit the range of thought. In this you are 
drawing the mind to a focus preparatory to elonga- 
tion. As the eye with dust therein sees nothing dis- 
tinctly, so the mind untrained has no focus, no depth, 
no clairvoyance ; it wanders in a maze of error. 

To call its scattered forces together is a herculean 
task, but it is small compared to the focusing of the 
spirit. As involuntary powers follow the lead of 
the voluntary — as the mind follows the direction of 



WILL-CUL TURE. 2 5 1 

the eye, being fixed when the eye is fixed — so spirit 
obeys the will. Agitation of the body disturbs the 
mind; agitation of the mind distracts and confuses 
the spirit, so that the will is deprived of its means to 
execute. Hence the necessity of calmness. 

Continuity is that which produces rest and satisfac- 
tion, as the love of a woman. It is the feminine of 
will, and creates by persistent effort. In deep, pro- 
found meditation the soul becomes pregnant with 
greatness, for the spirit, no longer driven from the 
soul by outward motions and emotions, slowly comes 
home to the soul, being called in and projected up- 
ward and inward. As spirit is fire, or that which 
produces fire, there is heat produced by its accumu- 
lation, which in time blazes forth, at first soft and 
mild, in great sheets of light, afterwards as the forked 
lightning. This light is life, which feeds the spirit 
body, and gives it strength and growth. 

It is in this turning within, this meditation, that 
the positive will becomes the negative ; and when 
pushed to extremes, total abstraction or forgetfulness 
follows. This is Trance. In trance the angels and 
celestial spirits are attracted, for the whole universe 
of spirit impinges upon the soul, by virtue of its at- 
tractive power. The Heavens are opened, and there 
is nothing hid from the truly great will. It pierces 
to any centre of power, energy, love, or knowledge, 
and drags therefrom its secrets. 

This is indeed the closet wherein Jesus told his 
disciples to enter when they prayed ; and to pray in 



252 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

secret, not letting the right hand know what the left 
hand doeth. In this way is the answer of prayer 
possible. "God is a spirit, and they who worship 
Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' ' To be in 
a trance is to be enveloped in spirit — to be " bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. ,, No de- 
ception, no untruth can enter here. Truth elevates 
the soul, and is a condition requisite to acquisition of 
all occult knowledge and power. To be true to your- 
self is to be true to God. To be true to conditions 
is to be divested of all fear, distrust, and doubt ; these 
bar the way and close the door. 

An abiding faith in the Infinity of Power, and belief 
in the ability of the soul to rise to realms thereof, are 
essentially basic principles of progress. To awaken 
the soul from its long sleep of the ages, a preparation 
is necessary. All passions must be put to sleep. 
The temper must be subjugated, and the animosities 
of nature must be destroyed. This is a herculean 
task to most men, but unless this be done, let no one 
boast of his will-power. 

The reason is obvious why these conditions are 
requisite. The larger the soul the greater the agita- 
tion of the elements within its radius ; and the pas- 
sions being the easiest disturbed are all in excessive 
activity. This explains why many noble-souled men 
go to the bad. Those capable of soaring the highest 
fall the lowest when bereft of self-control. The soul 
is an absolute calm, and when all things are calm out- 
side it expands itself as if to burst its prison-walls ; 



WILL-CULTURE. 2$$ 

then the Unnatural rushes upon its prisoner to over- 
come its power and destroy it. The calm warm sun- 
shine of summer days creates vast vacuums in the 
atmosphere ; then come the cyclone, the tornado, the 
lightning. These are nature's passions, which rage 
till the vacuum is subdued. 

The essential office of the soul is to create, and it 
does this by motions and emotions. Repulsion drives, 
diffuses, and scatters the spirit abroad. Attraction 
draws, not only its own to itself, but the aura or spirit 
of other things, which it appropriates so far as it is 
able. And this appropriation or fusion of elements 
is either elevating and life-giving, or is destructive. 

The fire of things is life, and there are no com- 
pounds thereof — it is one ; but the aura of things is 
graded from fire to the grossest stench, which, united, 
form a compound that is not pure. Purity feeds the 
fire-body, in which death and destruction have no 
place. 

Water in agitation becomes pure, but stagnant 
water has more life in it than running water. Of 
course the spirit in concentration becomes stagnant 
for a time, and in this stagnation, as in stagnant 
water, life in myriad forms springs into being. But 
ere they have being in the spirit, by persistent effort 
of will, in concentration upon the Idea of a Divine 
body, this life is condensed, indrawn, or compelled to 
take form as One. 

I am aware that there is a spiritual body which 
forms at death, but it is not an immortal body. This 



254 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

has been seen and described by many clairvoyants, 
and is spoken of by Paul ; but the Divine body is 
formed in this body during earth-life, or it is not 
formed at all. It is not a compound, neither is it 
corruptible matter. It is not seen by you, but you 
will know of it by having a feeling of immortal life 
and undying power within. When perfected, all 
power in heaven and in earth will be yours — not 
as a man, but as a God. 

"A mere fancy sketch " — "a picture of a dis- 
ordered brain I'' Nevertheless, it is a shadow of 
creative power, projected from the realm of the in- 
comprehensible beyond ! 

To return to our subject. In the concentration 
of spirit is increased life, sensation, sensitiveness, 
motions, emotions, and power of all sensuous enjoy- 
ments. Hence many fall into the slough of sense on 
the road, and never get out. 

The body is filled to overflowing with spirit (mag- 
netism miscalled), and the entire being vibrates with 
pleasure-seeking emotions and longings. None but 
the pure can pass over this bridge ; the impure fall 
at "the threshold." Monstrous shapes stand guard 
here — " Cherubim " with "flaming swords " guard- 
ing "the way to the tree of life/' 

It is the combustion of the compounds in the 
spirit which causes the commotion, and if it is re- 
sisted, they become rectified in time. 

First be thoroughly satisfied in your own mind 
that the road to calmness, tranquillity, and peace, 



WILL-CUL TURE. 2 5 5 

is the only way to health and happiness. I am not 
going to argue this point, it is the universal instinct 
of all thinking, reasonable men — none but savages 
will dispute it. This point settled, then go to work 
to attain it. 

This is done by a constant and eternal watchful- 
ness. As I before stated, the passions must be con- 
trolled, subdued, and brought into total and abject 
subjection to the will. This is best accomplished by 
setting apart one hour each evening for meditation. 
During this hour you think only of the weakness and 
folly of anger, lust, avarice, envy, etc., dwelling most 
upon your greatest and most besetting weakness in 
such a manner as to cause you to loathe yourself ; 
think of all you have done during the day — of the 
thoughts and feelings you have had, especially dwell- 
ing upon your failures at self-control ; aggravating 
your follies, and not trying to excuse yourself in the 
least. If you feel like asking for help, do so, but in 
thought only, and that the last thing you do, and as 
briefly as possible. 

Compare yourself with the calm, tranquil beauty of 
a flower, or a twinkling star, and thus take the pride 
out of your pretended greatness and egotism. Think 
of the body as needing your utmost care of nursing, 
as an ulcer needing to be dressed and poulticed — 
not that you love the ulcer, but to assuage its 
pain. 

Only a few years, and loathsome worms will crawl 
out and in at its nine orifices, and filthy matter will 



256 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

frost the lips you now curl so proudly. To destroy 
any feeling create its opposite. Is your heart agi- 
tated, torn and lacerated with unrequited love ? Does 
jealousy steal away your sleep and peace of mind ? 
Kill it then by clothing in your mind the object in 
garments of disgust. Rise above it in your thought, 
and look down upon it with disgust as an eagle 
passes by carrion. Fix your mind upon its worst 
and most disgusting aspect ; thus forgetting its allure- 
ments, and the love will grow less and less, until at 
last you wonder that you ever had such a feeling. 

Analyze, dissect the human heart, turn it over and 
over, pick it to pieces shred by shred, and see if you 
can find its main spring — when found, it will be 
just like your own. Do you hate ? Have you an 
enemy who delights in your woe ? Well, kill your 
hate, and thus your enemy, by learning to love him. 
" Oh ! that is impossible," says one. Impossible only 
to the weak. The will that cannot create love is a 
mere semblance — a bubble ; it cannot endure. 
Christ said, " Love your enemies." 

In order to produce love, you must sow the seed 
before it can grow. The seeds of love are respect. 
In your meditations fix your mind upon him, and 
thus evoke his "similacrum," and compel him to 
reveal his best nature to you ; thus you can find in 
all some little good to inspire your respect. Culture 
this, losing sight of his deformities and infirmities of 
character, for it shall in time ripen into love to the 
building up of yourself and him. Are you superior 



WILL-CULTURE. 257 

to your enemy ? If so, it is only in your love or 
charity, and not in pretence. 

" Pray for your enemies." Desire is prayer, which, 
to be answered, must be so intense that acts go there- 
with. To pray for your enemy is to do him good — 
not in the mere breathing of desire, but by kindly 
looks and acts. A gentle manner, a kind look, or 
word fitly spoken, an unobtrusive gift always goes to 
the heart, and will do more to kill enmity and elevate 
the soul than all the egotism on the globe. Pride, 
avarice, envy and malice have no wings, they are 
monsters of the deep, and have their home in the 
slime ; if you harbor them they will carry you down, 
down. They leave you as you grow calm and tran- 
quil in lovefulness. If you find you cannot grow in 
love, go down into disgust, and there wallow till the 
Divine fire is kindled ; but do not get disgusted with 
others — your field of labor is in yourself, in your 
own passions and weaknesses. 

It is out of disgust, as out of the cesspools of hell, 
that true manhood and spiritual power take their rise. 
He who is not disgusted with his own weaknesses 
and follies remains in them as a hog in his filth. 

In man's natural state he is indifferent ; hence, to 
him, there is neither good nor evil, neither height, nor 
depth — all things are alike — indifferent. As the 
earth without living things to inhabit it, is neither 
good nor evil. But man in an unnatural state is seeth- 
ing, boiling over, raving mad with the fires of lust ; he 
knows nothing of love or its divinity ; he scoffs at the 



258 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

idea of the soul-union of the male and the female as 
the door to immortal life and Godlike energy. 

All habits arise from and have their life in lust. 
Sexual habits are no exception, and the rules for 
destroying the taste for food and drink apply to sex- 
love as well. 

The fires of lust flow downward naturally. To 
reverse this downward tendency is to reverse the en- 
tire man. The spirit follows the thought, as the 
thought is controlled by physical motions or absence 
thereof. This turning of the operations upward is 
done only by an increased and extreme action of the 
brain and nervous system. To charge the brain with 
blood and increase its magnetic power and action, 
breathe deeply and constantly through the nostrils — 
deep, slow, long drawn inspirations, followed by rapid 
expirations ; this persisted in, becomes in time, a 
habit, which the soul carries on even in sleep, till the 
barriers of sense give way, and clairvoyance is the 
result ; but beware of insanity if the mind does not 
expand first by proper training. 

The higher mind ought to rule, but unfortunately 
in most men, body lords it over mind, lust rules the 
world. The man who by will rules and controls his 
passions is nicely balanced ; the man who by will 
puts his passions to sleep so that they need no watch- 
ing, has entered already the realm of power ; he has 
withdrawn the sexual fires from the lower extremities 
to his brain, and only needs to go one step more to 
become one of the " Illuminati," i.e., provided he is a 



WILL-CUL TURE. 259 

passionate man. (" A passionless man is an infernal 
monster, not only in this, but in all the starry worlds 
of space. ,, P, B. Randolph.) 

When passion is held and controlled by will, and 
the fires of sex confined to the body, they gradually 
draw together towards the mind and the thoughts 
collect and run together like a stream of water. 
Shallow and wide at first it lies, spreading away into 
swamps and marshes — stagnant pools which send up 
scum and filth, redolent of disease and crime, — but, 
when a channel is dug, its waters collect into a mur- 
muring brook, and gradually become a mighty river, 
purifying its waters by its own motion. The will 
digs the channel, and gradually draws the thoughts 
therein. It is hard at first, for they love the freedom 
of wildwood and slough, where they can bask and 
sun themselves, and evaporate to nothing ; they wash 
away the tiny banks many times, but the determined 
will builds and rebuilds until the banks are moun- 
tains high, and the river a powerful stream, upon 
which the soul is borne aloft, and angels, descending, 
meet the lone voyager with comfort and a purer 
spirit. 

The heights once ascended, the pathway ever re- 
mains, and each succeeding ascent becomes easier 
and easier. The way once learned, how strong and 
vigorous — how full of life, peace, rest, and joy, the 
scene becomes ! And yet how lowly, innocent and 
childlike ! But " the way is a strait and a narrow 
way." If ye will abide, then dig deep the channel 



260 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

towards the Infinite, and train the fractious thoughts 
to run therein, until they shall love the way, and all 
other thoughts be tributary, and run and murmur 
along the valleys, down the gorges, and leap and 
dance into the bosom of God. 

By concentration alone can man become powerful. 
Who can select one idea or thing, and think of that 
alone to the exclusion of all other thoughts, for the 
space of five short minutes ? Not many. Yet there 
are men who can take one thought, and follow its 
thread-like form for hours, as it winds its devious 
way, increasing as it goes, until it flows smoothly and 
noiselessly into the bosom of the sublime ocean of all 
truth, wherein they lave to their soul's content. 

Thought comes upon us like the dew upon the 
earth, but there are places where there is no dew. 
Such are rocks or dry sands. There are no flowers 
whose opening petals fail to catch some dew. Some 
men are like a pool of water, redolent of filth, whose 
surface is covered with that yellowish-green scum, 
which comes not from the atmosphere, but from 
within. This scum settles upon the faces of men, 
thick here and thin there ; and also upon their lives. 
It may be seen sometimes with the naked eye ; at 
other times it flashes out like an adder's tongue, only 
to be seen with clairvoyant sight. 
s ^- This shows that man has but a little time since 
come up out of the water, and that some have been 
out a longer time than others. There are lizards, 
snakes, frogs, toads, birds, spiders, and God only 



WILL-CUL TURE. 26 1 



knows what, walking like men ; but genuine men are 
scarce. They may be known by their lack of scum. 
Thought dissipates the scum ; meditation annihilates 
it. 
^ Thought is the lightning of God's universe. Men 
are lightning-rods. Some are so flat on the top of 
the head, that they attract nothing from the clouds 
that overshadow. Such attract from the earth ; their 
feet take root ; they cannot think, but vegetate and 
gather scum, the filthiest of which is Gold ! Others 
— and God knows how few they are — by their high, 
dome-like heads, attract spiritual forces, like the 
lightnings from the clouds, that shatter and break up 
the great deeps of their being, searing the outside so 
that no moss or scum will grow there. 

Real thought burns ; it rolls and turns the brain 
inside out, giving no opportunity for stagnation. 
Not so the thought that comes from the earth ; this 
stagnates and increases filth. 

Purity is oneness. It is the nucleus around which 
centers all good. It is the magnet of the human 
soul, and holds our thoughts as one, centered upon 
the source of all purity, God. 

By thought, man meditates ; and meditation col- 
lects the spirit, draws it from outward things to 
the inner, and leads to abstraction — the forgetting 
of one's self. Abstraction is the knife that cuts 
the cords which bind the soul to things. In other 
words, it finishes what thought begins and prepares 
the soul for flight. Magnetic sleep is its weakest 



262 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

phase. In this, the soul goes not out ; but the sub- 
ject often has second sight, and sees to distant 
places ; his power depending upon the combined fires 
of the operator and himself. 

The spirit once concentrated and drawn within, is 
under the control of the will, and may be projected 
to any distance, and produce any effect desired, from 
the impressing of others, and healing the sick, up to 
moving substances, and the manifesting of phantoms. 
This is a dual power. 

In the culture of will, there are many things 
demanding attention. The tongue is said to be 
an unruly member ; hence the Rosicrucian adage, 
"Silence is strength." In much speaking is evil. 
Excitement is injurious ; and the tongue fires and 
excites passion. The calm man is the strong man. 
To control others, first control yourself. To control 
spirit, control your passions. 

To penetrate the secrets of others, expand your 
consciousness so as to come en rapport with their 
inmost being. To feel as others feel, and thus know 
them, you must rise above them, then descend to 
them. You are not superior to anything, only in 
your imagination. Culture this, then, by looking for 
pictures in it as in a mirror. 

To get en rapport with another, you must first see 
him in your imagination ; when seen command him, 
and he will obey. Clairvoyance is the road to power ; 
but be so healthily or not at all. The soul is magical ; 
it can do anything ; produce anything, if it be large 



WILL-CULTURE, 263 

enough ; then study to expand it. To project your 
spirit to any distance, and thus be seen and heard, 
make the spirit pure so that it can vie with the light- 
nings in space, and not stick like slime to objects on 
the way. 

Your soul cannot travel without a coach, the spirit 
is the coach. Make yourself double, and then all 
things are easy. To be divine, forget that you are 
the devil. Power dwells in silence, and in secrecy — 
more in thought than in word — more in a look than 
in a blow, if you know how to look. Many a man 
has sickened and died, or become crazy, at the wish of 
another. Many a man has been haunted to death by 
the strong will of another. Many a man has been 
made to do the right towards another by that other 
forgiving him his wrong long before. 

There is more power in forgiveness than in re- 
venge, for the Gods avenge wrongs done to a good 
man. " Curses come home to roost," but they often 
do a sight of mischief before they come home, espe- 
cially when the outraged soul curses. 

If you feel disgust, can you look love ? Can you 
look disgusted when you feel love ? If not, " try," 
for this is will-culture. Can you hold your tongue 
when another calls you liar, thief, dog ? If not, you 
are no man ! Dogs snarl and bite at each other. 
How can you control your spirit, when your tongue 
is your master ? Can you be deaf while another 
raves ? Especially your wife ? If not, then you 
are under the control of others. Get out, man, by 



264 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

all means! Enter into yourself, as in a "closet," 
and when you have shut your eyes to sight, your 
ears to sound, and your nerves to sensation, you 
have then "shut the door," and "whatever you shall 
ask the Father in secret shall be done to you openly." 
This is worshiping "in spirit and in truth." 

Water is prolific ; all things gestate in water. The 
waters of the human soul are wrung out of the heart 
by real or imaginary wrongs. There is no growth 
without moisture. The dews that give life to vegeta- 
tion are nature's tears. The great soul has a soft, 
weeping heart. The small soul has no tears in it 
to shed. 

The true child of "the shadow" has a heart that 
distills the dews of its sympathy unseen and un- 
known ; it weeps over the fallen, and suffers in secret 
at its powerlessness to relieve. It is often sad with- 
out knowing why. Even adversity in material things 
does not affect it, as the shadow which seems to 
brood over it like the night. 

When the shadow comes closest, — when the sun 
is obscured and the stars give no light, — when hope 
is well-nigh fled, — look up, child of the gloom ! The 
light is near by, hidden in the deep folds of the cloud 
which rests like a pall over you. It is "the brood- 
ing " of the spirit you sense, in your disgust of life 
and love — which is softening and making malleable 
your heart of stone ! When it is sufficiently cultured, 
it will produce its fruit — - the harvest is sure. Pre- 
pare your ground; then dig deep the ditches for 



WILL-CULTURE. 265 

drainage and irrigation ; and draw together all your 
forces in order to pierce the gloom. 

The meditations recommended in this work as the 
true mental and spiritual discipline, are all of a gloomy 
and sombre character. The reason must be obvious 
to every thinker. There is a principle underlying 
this, in perfect harmony with the history of man- 
kind. It is the thoughtless who laugh. It is thought 
which takes the laughter out of a man and drapes 
him in black — symbol of the fire. 

Inspiration comes from despair ; and hearts that 
weep are close upon the confines of a great joy, peace 
and rest. " Blessed are they that mourn, for they 
shall be comforted." "God chasteneth whom he 
loveth," is a hard saying, but it is true. 

The trouble is, we do not know how to make use 
of the gloom, or the evil of life. We must learn to 
love the shadow, and to call it to ourselves by a mental 
effort. " Resist not evil," is appropriate here. The 
great minds who have pierced the gloom, and handed 
down to mankind light and philosophy, that enable 
us to bridge the abyss of death, have been sad- 
hearted, weeping men. "Jesus wept," but we have 
no knowledge of his ever laughing. Gautama never 
smiled after he forsook a crown and his family, for 
the forest and the yellow robes of Asceticism. Ap- 
ollonius, Socrates and Plato were not laughing 
men. 

There is a chamber of mourning, veiled and draped 
in black — in every human heart. We all retire to it 



266 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

at times, but the great -souled oftenest. Here the 
lurid world loses its glare, and all things become 
sombre ; the mind here loses its ferocity, and we go 
forth subdued. Alas for him who does not ! Alas 
for him whose experience still leaves him hard within ; 
whose river of life sends out no waters, no tears, no 
dew of sadness and sympathy over weaknesses and 
follies, all too apparent ! 

Such need much thought — nay ! they need the 
blows and chastisement of fate — the earthquake, 
the tremblings of fear, the lightning's rending — the 
agony of disease, disappointment, hate, jealousy and 
despair, to compel them to think. 

But let him, who would steer clear of these, pro- 
voke his soul to sadness, by meditations of such a 
nature as shall make him sick of life and its pleasures. 
If disease, weakness, pain or sickness bring lucidity 
of mind, it is well, but if death ensue without it, it 
is not so well. The mind should grow clearer and 
stronger from physical suffering, as the soul should 
expand her wings from mental anguish. To love the 
evil, and invite it, is to make it good. 

At a certain stage of development the soul becomes 
self-sustaining and productive of all that is needed. 
It becomes magical in its physical manifestations, as 
it is itself ; for the soul is a magical thing, and in its 
expansion — when it has filled the whole man with 
itself, after having become globular — the body be- 
comes a magical or a divine body. 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 267 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 

There is no limit to man's powers. That which 
seems a limit disappears or becomes an assistance in 
the reversal of the thought concerning it. 

Let me explain. Mental perception, intuition, or 
sight of the mind, is in the centre of the intellect ; 
but it ordinarily is a dark sun, which becomes lumi- 
nous by effort, as I have already set forth. Magnet- 
ism is a short road to lucidity, but the powers conferred 
are weak compared to those which come through 
effort. 

Magnetization is effected through passivity, and 
the vacating of thought and will. But it alternates, 
i. e. y depends upon conditions which vary, and are 
sometimes favorable and sometimes unfavorable ; and 
consequently, it is subject to spells — comes and 
goes, and leads everywhere and anywhere. It is 
good enough so far as it goes, but it does not go 
deep enough or far enough. 

The magnetic sleep is not at all dependent upon 
purity nor will-power. The luminosity I teach is not 
a sleep necessarily ; it is a blindness, or a cutting off 
of externals — a separation of the selfhood from out- 



268 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

ward influences by the sinking in or absorption of 
the voluntary powers, or the growth of the involun- 
tary to the voluntary, so that they become one. 
Mesmeric sleep is the first phase of it. 

Illumination, when once reached through and by 
effort of will, is always available. It makes and pre- 
serves uniform conditions ; hence it has no " fits or 
starts/' and makes no failures. When perfect it 
cannot be lost, for it is death-proof, and its possessor 
is no subject of any power in existence. He is an 
immortal being, having divine powers. 

There are many grades of powers, but I will first 
speak of sight : first, natural sight ; second, clairvoy- 
ance ; third, soul-sight. 

Clairvoyance has several degrees, while natural 
sight has only one. The first degree of clairvoyance 
is similar to natural sight : i. e., it sees only objects, 
such as reading blindfolded ; seeing objects at a dis- 
tance ; seeing through matter, etc. It grows by 
practice, and its powers increase as the lucidity of 
the brain increases. 

But lucidity is simply dependent upon the purity 
of the spirit. Purity focalizes the spirit, but magneti- 
zation is a result of a mixture of spirits ; hence it is 
what I have defined as impurity or an adulteration. 
It is exalting, as an intoxication ; hence its effects 
are fleeting and ephemeral in proportion to the im- 
purities involved. 

By impurities, I do not mean immoralities at all. 
Impurity is in the mixture and appropriation of differ- 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 269 

ent auras, substances, magnetisms, etc. Magnetic 
subjects go into the condition and come out of it 
through the influence of an operator ; sometimes in 
the form, but often out of it. In either case they 
are subject to the will of another, and the lucidity or 
exaltation of powers is a result of the union of spirits 
both in the form and out, which disappears when the 
subject is out of the condition. But the effects do not 
disappear so readily. Often the subjects are a prey 
to vampires both in the form and out, under whose 
infernal "sucking" the life is slowly but surely sapped. 

This is the case with more people — especially 
women — than many imagine. There is a conscious 
and an unconscious vampirism. All mediums are 
not, however, subject to this curse. Space will not 
allow me to dwell upon this important subject, farther 
than to add that mediumship is not confined to the 
ranks of spiritualism. Nine-tenths of all the crimes 
committed are due to vampirism. A vampire is not 
necessarily a disembodied spirit ; we are just as much 
spirits now as we will ever be, and all the power that 
any spirit may have we can have, if we only know 
how to develop and use it. For that which is not in 
us cannot exist long as ours. 

Clairvoyance is a mental power, and as the mind 
becomes more and more luminous by practice and 
focalization of the spirit, " spiritual gifts " are joined 
to it, as fruit is joined to a blossom. It is not my 
object to specify and define these gifts further than 
is necessary to elucidate my subject. 



270 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Vampirism is one spirit preying upon another. It 
differs from obsession in degree only. Clairvoyance 
becomes deeper and deeper by practice, until it enters 
somewhat into the penetralia of things, in which its 
subject becomes alive to influences — aches, pains, 
physical and mental states, aspirations, loves, long- 
ings, etc. It is now becoming near to another power, 
viz., the perception of spirit forms, faces, and the 
hearing of voices, or clairaudience. This is, of course, 
a higher power than mere sight of objects. 

Spirit pours out in look and gesture, but in speech 
more than in any other manner. In fact, speech is 
the highest expression of spirit, and it is more suscep- 
tible to culture than looks or gestures, and leads to 
greater depths of being ; and is moreover, more 
reliable, because it does not lead to that idolatry 
which the sight of beauty and grandeur always does. 
The beholding of spiritual beings by clairvoyants has 
led many into the erroneous idea that they have 
beheld God, the ineffable One, when, in fact, such 
sight may be a conjuration of the will of some strong 
operator. Phantoms seldom speak ; to be reliable, 
all the psychic senses should go together. 

The deepest clairvoyance is that where objects, 
both material and spiritual, are passed by as of no 
account, and the ineffable glories of soul-realm 
glimpsed in feeling. This is a sense of spirit, as fire 
only, and not as objects. This fire or spirit finds a 
voice suited to the ear of him who will listen. 

Zoroaster said : " When you see the fire, listen 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 27 1 

to the voice of the fire ! " It was in view of this 
truth that Moses enacted laws against the communi- 
cating with spirits ; and in order to preserve purity 
in the mediums (or priests), tried to confine it to the 
tribe of Levi. It was for this purpose (purity) that 
celibacy was enjoined by Buddha. 

Beyond this mundane sphere — beyond the realm of 
spiritual things — are infinite knowledge and power. 
And he who is able to pierce through the shadow 
which things cast, senses the glories of the spirit- 
worlds. But this is all. Forms do not appear from 
beyond "the abode of the gods ; " but he who can 
visit the highest abode may sense the echoes of busy 
feet, and the whisperings of incomprehensible and 
unutterable things. This power I call soul-sight ; 
intuition ; but it is not a sight of things, but a sense 
of the fire of principles. This power is within all 
spiritual powers. As the soul is the inmost of the 
man, so is soul-sense the inmost of intuition. 

Clairvoyance, psychometry, and clairaudience, are 
all developed by contact, or the coming en rapport 
with objects. Their field of operations is in the spirit 
of things ; but soul-sense is developed by holding the 
spirit aloof from other things, spirits, etc., and the 
losing sight of all distinctions or differences of things. 
It is the distinctness of things which scatters the 
spirit and confuses thought and mind. We know 
nothing, because there are so many things to learn. 
We think not clearly because we see so much. 

He who seeks the absolute loses sight of the differ- 



272 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

ences of things, and passing inward, reaches the spirit 
thereof ; but instead of entering en rapport therewith, 
passes deeper still beyond all distinctions and differ- 
ences to the oneness of being — in fact, to the 
supernatural of his own being. " He that hath a 
mind to think, let him think ; " for, indeed, it is 
thought which leads to hearing of the Word. 

He who passes in thought through and beyond 
things, hears "the Word of God." For God dwells 
in the inmost recesses of all being, hidden away from 
all mortal sight ; hence the necessity of destroying 
the differences of things in the mind. The differ- 
ences among men constitute hell. How easily we are 
all brothers when we forget our differences. They 
make enemies of us — enemies to each other and to 
God. How harmonious we would be if there were 
no distinctions. Of a truth, this is the road to 
God. 

The man who fixes not his attention upon differ- 
ences of race, sex, conditions, opinions, names, etc., 
is a great-souled man, and looks with indifference 
upon the small things which agitate and disturb 
mankind. He can lay claim to kinship with God, 
who loves all alike. Aye, and he holds sweet con- 
verse with God in the depths of his own all-knowing 

INTUITIVE SOUL ! 

This is the source of all inspiration. God finds 
voice in the soul, and intuition is but the faint echoes 
thereof, as it vibrates along the dark and noisome 
crypts of being. Alas ! for him who " hath no ears 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 273 

to hear ; " nor " eyes to see " — his darkness must be 
intense indeed. 

Let him who would reach the regal powers of the 
soul sit in circles. For in the mingling of magnet- 
isms is an intense and fierce combustion or war of 
spirits produced, in which conflagration, great and 
rapid changes take place ; during which the soul 
begins to make motions as of a thing coming to life ; 
it is drawing itself together into shape, leaving the 
atoms of the body. Motions are usually felt at first 
in the hands, which vibrate as when in contact with 
a magnetic battery ; this sensation extends in time 
to every part of the body in some persons ; in others, 
it is limited to the hands, arms or head ; it deepens in 
intensity till the nerves begin to twitch and jerk. 

When you have reached this point, there are two 
roads open for you. If you wish mediumship with 
any of its multitudinous phases, with a band of 
helpers and a guide, just sit passive and " let it jerk ; " 
don't expect or be anxious for anything, but let your- 
self alone, fully resigned to accept whatever may 
come without doubt or criticism. Think of nothing 
as nearly as possible, and above all resist no impulse 
of thought, word or action. " Follow your impulses " 
is the law of mediumship. 

But if you choose the soul road, you must now 
brace yourself for an effort ; that effort is resist- 
ance — resist all impulses and all motions of the 
nerves and muscles ; instead of passivity, grasp your- 
self as with your hands, holding fast in your mind or 



274 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

imagination with the same tension of the nerves as 
if you were holding something, but without any mus- 
cular contraction — this while sitting in the circle. 

To become spiritual, cultivate mind, for this is the 
door which must, indeed, open before you can walk 
out into the realms of p<rwer. To cultivate mind, 
increase the activity of the nervous system and its 
source — the brain. Draw the blood to the brain, 
by deep breathing and the fixing of the thought upon 
the object in view. N Magnetize yourself one hour 
every evening by taking hold of the left thumb with 
the right thumb and forefinger, and pressing gently, 
enough to keep the attention fixed upon it, and think 
of one thing, say some word — your own name, if 
nothing else — saying it over and over to yourself 
constantly. In a short time your object will become 
fixed and constant in your thoughts, and the soul will 
begin its work. But remember that each effort you 
make upward will be followed by a revulsion down- 
ward, and you will find yourself becoming amorous/ 
Resist this impulse, as all impulses. In the course of 
time, you will see clouds, flashes of light, and faces 
or forms will peer out of the gloom at you, or form in 
the clouds. 

Pay no attention to these things, but keep right on 
with your exercise. There are many more methods 
which I am not at liberty to disclose. Things of a 
physical nature assist the physical inasmuch as physi- 
cal nature yields most readily to such things as are 
like itself, or one degree removed therefrom. To 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 2?$ 

illustrate : a brute yields to the force of a club, but 
when he is trained a word controls him. So with 
mankind : some need kings, and soldiers with bayo- 
nets, to keep them within humanity's realm ; others 
stay there naturally, for they understand its unspoken 
and unwritten laws. For^abes, milk and baby-talk ; 
for children, play-houses and stories ; for youth, the 
dance and the opera ; for middle age, the rush and 
rattle, the clash and commotion of business ; for 
mature man, thought, reason, spiritual things. These 
are nature's methods of culture. 

Nature cannot be forced out of one mood into an- 
other. Ask yourself, " Where does my love lead 
me ? " and nature or your own soul will tell you 
truly. If you long to become spiritual, begin at 
once, and that gradually. " Nature allows none to 
overleap her barriers ; they must be beaten down!' 
Don't ask God to teach you, but learn of such as are 
in harmony with you, even if it be the devil. 

The basis of all understanding is mutual sympathy 
existing between the teacher and the student — the 
actor and the audience. To the material in thought, 
desire and action, are the matter-of-fact in nature 
adapted. They are like it, and hence the spiritual 
is too far removed from them to be their direct 
teachers ; such need physical training, and to them 
are physical means necessary. Hence, to such (and 
in fact, all men are of this class more or less), in 
addition to deep breathing, the bath, in cold, magnetic 
water ; a complete and radical change in the diet ; 



2?6 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

rest instead of exercise ; thought instead of talk ; 
tears instead of laughter ; darkness instead of light ; 
emotion instead of motion — these and more are 
necessary to train the physical before the spiritual 

s can come forth. 

^ Spirit is formless, and yet not altogether so. 
There is a form within these bodies of ours, which is 
spirit, and yet it hath no form until detached, as it 
were, from the flesh. All development is a loosening 
of the spirit from the flesh and the loves thereof ; 
and this loosening is the embryotic organization of 
the spiritual body carried on and fully perfected. 

\ Resist muscular and nervous motion with all your 
power of will. Keep calm. Never allow any cir- 
cumstance to agitate or disturb you ; for here in the 
degree of motion it is Jhat demons and evil-disposed 
spirits take advantage of your sensitive and expansive 
condition, and enter in — first, the nervous system, 
and secondly, the mind, and control you to your de- 
struction. 

Music sets you on fire, and you want to dance, 
sing or shout: keep silent — " silence is strength/' 
Never debate ! But let the one object be to keep 
calm, self-possessed and cool. This is the beginning 
of self-control and power. It is concentration. 
Think, meditate, read and study — but keep silent. 
Remember there are beings around you who come in 
connection with you through words, sounds, motions, 
etc., who, without them, remain ignorant of your 
object and condition. There are demons and spirits 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 277 

who cannot read the mind, but who can hear and 
see. 

It is when thrown off our guard, and carried 
away by strange sensations, thoughts, impulses, mo- 
tions and emotions, that we are seized upon by the 
above or below, and carried away from ourselves, as it 
were, from our equipoise or balance — self -conscious- 
ness dethroned : and we rise or fall according to pre- 
disposition. The falling into acts silly and criminal, 
or less than those of the normal state, is termed 
" obsession ; " but this, like most names, is an effort 
to explain that which we do not understand, an 
assumption of knowledge, an excuse we make to 
ourselves for our ignorance, a distinction made, a 
difference visible in extremes, as good and evil, which 
flow into one another as one ; but to us, and for us, 
obsession is as real as the evil, and must be avoided. 

Since I commenced writing this book, this subject 
was forced upon my attention by a series of articles 
in some one of the spiritual papers ; I cared nothing 
for the differences of opinion in regard to obsession ; 
but feeling the necessity of progress in the avoid- 
ance of evil, by some persons at least, I sought for a 
sure, safe and certain preventive of it ; I pondered 
several days upon this subject with no satisfactory 
result. One night, alone in my tent, a wave of lone- 
liness and sadness swept over me. This had no visi- 
ble or mundane cause — my health was excellent, 
business was good, money was plenty (for I had "a 
dime in my pocket/' which is enough as long as it 



278 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

lasts), but nevertheless I was low-spirited, and could 
neither think nor write, so throwing down my pen I 
paced up and down until wearied, and threw myself 
upon my bed to sleep. My mind became tranquil as 
my body became at rest, and this idea of obsession 
came over me as a problem unsolved. To solve it, I 
knew of only two ways. One was to come en rapport 
with the spirit of obsession, and hence become obsessed 
myself in order to know all about it by experience ; 
the other was by inspiration. 

The first was repugnant to all my thoughts and 
feelings. Under all circumstances I wish to be my- 
self — and only that ; so I turned aside and repelled 
the spirit by the thoughts of my own individual self- 
hood, and the determination to be only myself. There 
are lights, clouds, flashes, faces and forms here at this 
condition of the mind ; but, in following my thought, 
I passed them by as of no account. Laughing faces, 
hideous faces, and monstrous forms looked out of the 
light at me, and as I passed by, mocked and scowled. 
Gradually the lights paled, the faces grew dim and 
finally disappeared, leaving me in intense and opaque 
darkness. Pulsating, throbbing, vibrating with strange 
and weird sensations, I glided along down the corri- 
dors of the soul as one falling, and slowly, oh ! so 
slowly, losing myself. All at once, from out the dark- 
ness, and close to me, a voice low and soft sounded 
in my ear : " To avoid obsession, keep the body posi- 
tive and the mind negative." The voice came so 
suddenly, and was so close to me, that I was startled 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 279 

and driven back to myself. There I lay vibrating 
throughout with ecstatic emotions, altogether out of 
the ordinary nature of things, with the words en- 
graved in letters of fire upon my consciousness. To 
me this was a new idea ; it was a revelation of a won- 
derful truth, and I cast about for the logic of it, 
which is this : 

Ordinarily the body is negative, and hence receptive 
to impressions — physical, atmospherical, and spirit- 
ual. The first effect of magnetism is to increase this 
negative state of the body ; hence, it becomes very 
impressible and very liable to take on the conditions 
of others, both in the mundane and the spiritual. 
The will is the cause of all posit iveness of mind, body 
and spirit. By its force it is repulsive, and holds at 
a distance things foreign and injurious. Now, in pas- 
sivity, the will relaxes the tension of the nerves, and 
they are unstrung ; in which state, spirits both good 
and evil can enter into the inactive sphere of the 
spirit, and thus get a lodgement from which to con- 
trol, in time, the mind, and subjugate the will. 

Now, if by any process the body is kept posi- 
tive, the spirit becomes likewise positive ; hence, no 
spirits but those of a negative character will be at- 
tracted. Remember, it is only positive spirits that 
seize upon and obsess mortals. They are the repul- 
sive and the deficient — the empty of sympathy and 
all elements of greatness. The law is for the posi- 
tive to enter into and control the negative, i.e., to 
beget therein their own devilishness. In rendering 



280 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 



the mind negative by constantly keeping down its 
excitabilities, it is elevated by the motive or object in 
view ; and as mind can only be acted upon by mind, 
and is not a receptacle of anything but ideas, minds of 
a high order, such as have ideas to give, are attracted 
and instill their ideas or thoughts of a positive nature 
into the negative mind ; thus leading the mind upward 
without disturbing the will in the least. Indeed, such 
spirits increase the individuality by assisting instead 
of controlling. Negative spirits never do harm. 

It only remains for me to explain how the body 
can be rendered positive, and the mind negative. The 
tranquil, peaceful, inoffensive mind is negative. This 
idea of controlling mind instead of nerves and mus- 
cles, engages the entire attention and will ; for the 
mind is not rendered tranquil save by constant watch- 
fulness, and the keeping down of those passions which 
disturb, agitate, and thus cause filth to rise up as 
impurities of the blood and spirit. The will thus 
engaged in rendering the mind negative or tranquil, 
renders the body positive at the same time, because 
two negatives cannot exist together, neither can two 
positives. 

I am aware it is a reversal of nature's methods, but 
he who would rise up to power must rise in the mind, 
or not at all. God dwells in all things alike, but those 
who seek him cannot find him so readily in some 
things or conditions as in others. Remember what 
I have previously said about diet. Don't be in a 
hurry, for all things grow slowly. 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 28 1 

Weakness is only an argument in favor of strength, 
and the small measure of the spirit meted out to us 
here only indicates the vastness of its extent and 
power. The impossibilities of our infirmities indicate 
the possibilities of those who are firm. Then doubt 
not, waver not, but keep steadily, coolly on, up the 
mountains of difficulty. Each one you surmount only 
reveals more clearly to you the possibilities of your 
nature. The value of things is in their use. Spiritual 
gifts are of use just now, in the "a-b-c" of man's 
growth — in the awakening of man's dull senses to 
the recognition of a future existence and its nature ; 
but when such becomes universal, as it must in time, 
what will be their use ? 

The world has been as far advanced in spiritual 
things in the long ago as now — and probably much 
further ; but what use was it to them ? They had 
their oracles and their temples, and gods and guides 
without number ; but all this did not prevent retro- 
gression. 

The ground must now all be traveled over again. 
Again must the priesthood be organized, the temples 
built, the altars reared, and the fires lighted ; and 
for what is all this ? Oh, the patience of the Infinite ! 
In vain are the choicest gifts of heaven showered 
upon unthankful and unthinking man ! They are all 
prostituted to devilish ends and aims. The choicest 
oracles of the olden time led opposing armies to the 
slaughter of each other. The prophets of the Lord 
anointed kings and watched over the welfare of one 
nation to the detriment of another. 



282 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Gifts were all prostituted to the attainment of ma- 
terial wealth, grandeur, glory and fame. All powers 
were bent and warped to the creation and perpetua- 
tion of monstrous distinctions among men, by reason 
of which war and outrage are the rule, and peace and 
harmony very rare exceptions. Where now are they ? 
A slow, lingering decay — an awful disease of the 
very vitals, or the violent conflagration of their own 
passions hath swept them away. The wand of a 
magician hath waved across the sky and they are not ! 
But they have left the diseases which they created 
behind them in the ruins of their former glory and 
worship. Their spirituality is only a ruin. 

In vain do men teach and preach ; the world goes 
on in the old beaten track, and religion follows the 
lead. In vain did the lowly Jesus heal the sick and 
teach the ignorant. In vain did he cry from the 
mountains and temples, of a rare good life here, free . 
from disease and death. The Jews heard him not — 
and now — even now — with all our boasted progress 
and civilization the word of a God is prostituted to 
mean something he never intended. " If ye believe 
ye shall not die," is enunciated in words which can 
have no other meaning. 

If he had meant what is now preached as the gos- 
pel, it was as easy to have said " He that believeth 
shall not go to hell" as to have said what he did. 
His teachings from beginning to end show his mission 
to have been to teach mankind how to live humane 
lives so as to be healthy and happy. His healing of 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 283 

the sick shows that the gospel was that of physical 
health and the salvation from disease. His raising 
of the dead, and his own resurrection, show further 
that death was a thing to be overcome by living a true 
life. " And these signs shall follow those that be- 
lieve, ,, etc. (See Luke xvi. 17, 18.) In another 
place he says, " Greater works than these shall ye 
do, because I go to the Father." 

Of what avail are spiritual gifts if their utmost 
power is simply to demonstrate another life without 
joining this life thereto as one ? It must be evident 
to every thoughtful person that the object of these 
manifestations is the elevation of the race. And 
wherein can this be effected, save in the power to 
enjoy ? Where does this power reside, save in health ? 
In vain did Jesus heal the sick if he did not teach the 
way to continued health ! In vain did he raise the 
dead if he did not show the way to remain alive ! If 
they die not in the spirit-world, what need of death 
here ? 

All the revelations heretofore given have been of 
an immortal life in some other state of existence. 
But I tell you of an immortality of this life. I 
believe Jesus taught the way of its attainment, but it 
was not understood. I may not be able to point the 
whole road, but what I have said already must con- 
tain the principles of it in part. Man creates himself 
and all the essentials of his being — his health, happi- 
ness, heavens and hells. But hell comes from mis- 
directed effort and heaven from well-directed effort. 



284 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Things superior descend as a revelation in answer 
to a demand, which revelation is an idea — this is 
enlightenment. No matter how, or in what manner an 
idea comes, if it is of a superior character, it is of the 
light. Hence it is enlightening, and leads upwards. 
Man must first have an idea of what he wants before 
he can create conditions superior to things that now 
are. 

The demand always precedes the supply. Is there 
a demand for a continuous and happy life here on this 
globe ? Is there a demand for power to create forms 
of matter for use by effort of will, without the toil 
and demoniac scramble after the necessaries of life? 
There will be a demand when man is satisfied of its 
possibility. Then multiply the mediums ! The spirit- 
world is drawing near. Soon, spiritual beings will 
walk among us as men — will heal the sick, cast out 
devils, multiply bread for the hungry, and gold for 
the greedy, till it shall lose its value, and man turns 
his attention to the attainment of spiritual powers 
and gifts. 

The demand for self-government and peace has 
already gone up to the Gods, and the answer is 
coming. The bomb which carried Alexander of 
Russia into hell, or out of it, was God-sent, in answer 
to the prayer of many an earnest soul. A full and 
complete answer is at hand, when the world shall be 
free, and every man shall be his own king, priest, 
bishop, pope, and God ! All hail to the mediums 
and to spiritual gifts of all grades and kinds ! For 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 285 

here is freedom. Let gifts be no longer prostituted 
by individual ambition, nor to the building of thrones 
or national glory ! Let the universal anthem be, 

" PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD-WILL TO MEN ! " 

Let us work mentally and spiritually, so that the 
new temple shall not be made with hands of material 
substance, but a temple in these bodies — a divine 
body, wherein God shall be conscious to each one of 
us. Let us rear altars in our own hearts — altars of 
love-worship, needing no typical sacrifices of the 
blood of animals or of men. Let us light the fires of 
the spirit thereon, which are unquenchable and 
eternal. 

Man's desires for immortality have been mis- 
directed, inasmuch as his revelations have been of a 
future life, and not of this. The time has come when 
revelations must be made of this life and its possibili- 
ties — of the present, and not of the future. The 
perfect life of to-day admits no doubt nor fear of to- 
morrow. A perfect life here is as fully and com- 
pletely immortal as any life in any world. The idea 
of living for the future is a false light ; it is a mate- 
rial light of " Lucifer, Son of the morning/ ' Happi- 
ness is not of to-morrow, nor of any future time or 
world. It is to-day or not at all. All life is of to- 
day, and the present. The future never comes. 

Salvation is from disease. If you die of disease, 
you wake up on the other side diseased ; you have to 
be cured there before you have fullness of life. The 
same knowledge that saves you there will save you 



286 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

here. Then why not have that knowledge ? The 
self-same power that feeds the angels in heaven will 
feed you here, if it is yours. Then why not open 
your soul to its reception ? Heaven is in no partic- 
ular place. It is within you if you want it there, 
with all its angels and powers — aye ! and its im- 
mortal life, also. 

" In union there is strength." " Again, I say unto 
you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touch- 
ing anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for 
them of my Father which is in Heaven." (Matthew 
xviii. 9.) 

This agreement spoken of here is not merely of 
the mind — it is a union or oneness of spirit, wherein 
power is multiplied in an unknown ratio. The spirit 
of one is not as another — they differ in quality, 
hence there is no agreement : even where minds 
agree, the spirits do not. Hence the possibility of 
the truth of the above is in the agreement. Agree- 
ment is the kingdom of power. The union of two is 
of higher quality than one alone ; and the more spirits 
there are in the union the greater is the power. But 
the difficulty deepens when it is made known that 
two male spirits cannot agree. Agreement is of the 
male and female. Herein Divinity appears, and power 
to accomplish all things is manifest. But union of 
spirit is preceded by mental agreement. 

Now, the demand for immortal power and life on 
this earth must first be a mental agreement, which, in 
its perfection and harmony, will give birth to union 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 287 

or agreement of spirit touching that thing. But look 
you ! Woman is not free ! Alas for the dawn of 
light ! Woman a slave ! Prostituted by man's self- 
ishness and lust ! How can the prayers of such a 
monster be answered? " Verily, I say unto you," 
"the prayer of the wicked availeth nothing/' 

Little can be effected without freedom. But let us 
do what we can in the union of minds. Spirit works 
by methods beyond the mind ; hence its laws cannot 
be comprehended by the mind. "The kingdom of 
heaven cometh not by observation," i.e. y not through 
laws of mentality. Spirits are unable to explain the 
law of manifestation. I believe material is evolved 
from the medium, and combined with subtle elements 
in the atmosphere by the effort of the will of some 
powerful spirit, or by the union of several, into 
flowers, apparitions, spirit-forms, clothing, etc., etc., 
and that it will yet be demonstrated that materialized 
spirits are evolved from the medium. 

But no matter how it is done, the power that can 
make a flower, or a piece of cloth, can make gold, 
fruit, bread, or anything else desired. All that is 
requisite are conditions, and knowledge, or faith, or 
will, or whatever you feel like calling the power. 
These manifestations are in their infancy as yet, for, 
although as old as man, they have probably never 
been properly understood, or so universally under- 
stood by spirits of a high and intelligent order as 
now. They are experimenting, and they understand 
fully the value of co-operation or harmony. The 



288 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

much-talked-of conditions of spiritual manifestations 
are nothing more nor less. 

Jesus, in view of this principle, selected twelve 
Apostles who were as harmonious with him as men 
can well be. But the Scriptures are mostly silent in 
reference to the important part the women who fol- 
lowed him took in the work he did. It is doubtful if 
he ever explained this idea, to them ; probably this 
is the esoteric part of the Gospel which was never 
written. It is reasonable to infer as much, for the 
early Christians had everything in common, thus 
striving to destroy distinctions and to perfect a union 
that should enable them to carry out the intuitions 
and work of Jesus. (See Acts iv. 32.) "And the 
multitude of them that believed were of one heart 
and one soul : neither said any of them that aught of 
the things which he possessed was his own ; but they 
had all things common:" that is, the writer thought 
they were of "one heart and soul" because they tried 
to be so. 

Why they gradually lost the gifts of the Spirit 
must be evident to every reasonable, thoughtful mind. 
The agreement or union was lost through the gradual 
growth of distinctions and differences : — first, of 
mind ; second, of spirit ; and third, of material sub- 
stances (property). Had they perfected the union, 
instead of proselyting, they would have established 
the church upon a "rock," and afterwards the growth 
would have been a steady, healthy, upward growth ; 
neither would they have wanted for anything, for the 



SOUL-POWERS AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS, 289 

kingdom of harmony contains all things. "First 
seek the kingdom of heaven : then all other things 
shall be added unto you." 

The power that comes of perfect union or harmony 
is wonderful. God dwells in it! " Where two or 
three are gathered together in my name " — or in 
oneness of heart, mind, soul and spirit — " there am 
I in the midst. " The principle is what we need — 
the name or the man is nothing ; but for those in- 
capable of comprehending a principle, the name is of 
vital importance. Do not destroy a man's idols, if he 
is incapable of reason. 

The spirit, by union, ascends higher than if alone ; 
and God descends upon its tide to bless not merely 
those who unite, but all the world in which they 
move. Alas ! for the angularities and differences 
that destroy us. The secret of union is in self- 
harmony as a foundation : this is good, but two is 
better ; but if the two be male and female, it is best. 
Magnetism leads thereto. 

It behooves me to add, in this connection, that the 
age of wrong and bloodshed is nearly past. The 
dawn of a divine government is at hand, wherein 
the fundamental principle of government is for the 
moral benefit of the person punished and not primarily 
for the protection of society. As a tender and kind 
father corrects his child for the child's good, and not 
to vindicate his power or authority in the least, so will 
society deal with its weak members. 

Crime will be treated as a disease of the mind, and 



2gO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

hospitals will take the place of jails, penitentiaries 
and scaffolds. Instead of physicians, chaplains and 
guards, there shall be a few chosen ones who, united 
in mind and soul, shall pour the psychological power 
of the angel-world upon criminals of all classes, and 
they shall be healed ; for under this influence certain 
organs of the brain may be rendered inoperative, and 
other organs may be called into activity ; thus the 
morally weak may be strengthened, and the depraved 
shall be made to loathe and despise their depravity ; 
this can be done in secret without the criminal's 
knowledge. 

Who shall lead off in this great moral work ? 
Psychometry will reveal the peculiarities of children 
and adults, and those needing treatment will be 
treated and trained without the rod and the dunce- 
cap. There will be no escape for the criminal, for 
the mediums will point them out — for their good 
primarily, and secondly, for the good of society. The 
weak will be known before a manifestation of weak- 
ness — or, rather, the commission of crime. The time 
will come, and that speedily, when from the Temples 
of the Rose Cross such power shall be breathed 
out upon the people, so gently, and so peacefully, 
that none shall be disposed to do any one a wrong. 

The whole people shall join in one grand Psycho- 
logical effort to banish disease and death from the 
land. Who shall say it will not be done ? Who 
will be the first to enroll their names among the 
Temple-builders and pioneers of the millennium? 



SPIRITUALITY. 29 1 



CHAPTER XX. 



SPIRITUALITY. 



There is a spirit pervading the universe, known 
under the appellation of God, which is embodied in 
man as well as in everything else that exists. But 
particularly to man is it given to call the spirit, which 
is individualized as himself, "My Spirit." We speak 
of our spirits, souls, bodies, etc., as we do of our 
property. And so they are. We may lose our spirits 
as we do our property. 

In the creation of man God is reversed — or He 
has turned man loose, to range as he will with his 
back towards the Creator. Hence the cry, "Turn 
ye ! turn ye ! for why will you die? " This is the rea- 
son why man has no knowledge of the future — light 
is behind and he has only memory, or experience, as 
his guide. God is within him, but he is all uncon- 
scious thereof, and looks to outside nature for all that 
he can hope for and fear. Truly he must turn — if 
he would find the source of his life — and examine 
himself. 

We all have spirits, but none of us are spirits 
— and never will be ; for the moment the body dies, 
and the soul has left it, the spirit hovering around, 



292 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

and enveloping the soul, begins a process of organi- 
zation of another form. This other form is material. 
True, it is in another condition — and is invisible to 
us, but it may not be in an apparitional state at all 

— nor in so close a relationship to this earth as to 
come under its laws. 

Furthermore, the life the person has led has an 
effect upon his spirit ; and in most cases the soul has 
not attained sufficient consciousness to enable it to 
control and better its organization — consequently, it 
comes into another state of being in a worse condition 
than this. But soul and mind in union — conscious- 
ness remains, and the soul has control of the spirit to 
enable it to improve a little upon its organization. In 
most men soul and mind are too far apart. The mind 
wrapped up in mundane affairs is a blind mind — it 
dies at death, or shortly thereafter for want of use. 
There are no spirits except embodied spirits. Anger 
does not exist except in some form — Love is Infinite 
Spirit — the creator and sustainer of all that exists. 
But such spirits as pride, lust, anger, etc., are simply 
love fallen from its pure state. Hence the legend of 
a fallen angel is founded in truth. Love reversed is 
man's self-love. Without this self-love no spirit of 
anger, pride, etc., could exist, for these dark spirits 
all spring from self-love. 

So it may be readily seen that love is the creator 

— the fountain — and all that flows therefrom must 
be of the same nature — and all things are love in 
some form or other. A man may love himself with 



SPIRITUALITY. 293 



such intensity as to finally hate himself, and his very 
existence. " The sweetest things make the strongest 
acid. ,, 

The warmest friends often become the very worst 
enemies. The hottest love, when cold, produces the 
deadliest hate. Love is the only creator — our 
Father, our providence, our life. 

Love being a spirit, he who hath the most of it is 
the most spiritual in its highest sense, because this 
spirit is boundless — while all other spirits are limited 
and finite, for that which falls must find the centre, 
where it loses itself in the universal darkness of non- 
conditions — inertia. 

Lust is Lucifer ("son of the morning") fallen 
love — or a fallen angel. How does love fall ? The 
same as the sunlight falls into matter — or becomes 
matter. 

So our spirit centres in an inner sun, from which 
it radiates. This stm is self-love. This is the centre 
of our individuality. Its light or life is pure at first 

— i.e., white, without color or shade — but being in- 
volved in circumstances of a sensuous nature, it soon 
gets broken or refracted, and we begin to love things 
foreign, or outside of ourselves. This draws the cen- 
tral sun from a fixed or stationary state into an orbit 

— or in other words it has fallen from the soul into 
mind. 

The love of a virgin soul is a pure, fixed star 
of the first magnitude — a sun shedding an immortal 
light — which, when it has fallen away to others, has 



294 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

become of the mind — of thought, calculation, vanity, 
pride, etc. — a wandering star of lesser magnitude — 
shedding a weaker light — and finally falling into 
darkness, or the body — and here known as lust, or 
physical love — still sinking lower down it becomes 
disgust, hate, and all that is devilish. 

Strange that the beautiful Angel Love, Spirit — 
should have fallen so low as to become dark matter ! 
Yet so it is. From mind the descent of spirit into 
matter is rapid and easy. Love is not of the mind 
until it falls thereunto. The world is full of mental 
love — and also of crime ; but soul love is very scarce. 

Spirituality is now a mere name. Let me tell you 
what it is not. It is not materiality — nor sensuality. 
It is not in gold, silver, houses and lands. It is not 
in the government of this world — nor in the "big I" 
of yourself. It comes not from education — nor is 
it morality — nor honesty — nor what the world calls 
virtue — nor benevolence — nor the loftiest reason — 
nor does it come from justice. It comes not from 
a belief in spiritualism, the attending of circles, and 
the accepting what any medium or trance speaker 
may teach. It cannot be imparted by any preaching, 
praying nor sighing. The merits, life, sufferings and 
death of Jesus on the cross cannot impart it to any 
one. No hearsay or reading can make you spiritual. 
You must experience and feel the truth in yourself 
in your own soul. 

Truth is to be truthful and true to the light of con- 
sciousness. But the consciousness not lighted by the 



SPIRITUALITY. 295 

fires of love is no guide. Intellectual light is not of 
love — but if it unite with love, then it is quickened 
and made alive by the spirit. This illuminates the 
mind. When truth unites with love in the soul there 
is a generation — a striking out as of fire — and a 
flame is produced. This flame is the comforter and 
the guide. 

"Love God " ("a spirit " love) "with your whole 
mind, might and strength " — and "worship him in 
spirit and in truth." The love of God is the love of 
one woman — do you know what worship is ? Do you 
know how — or can you enter into the Spirit? Is 
worship really the praying, singing and preaching we 
are taught it is ? To enter into the Spirit is to be 
illuminated. We are sunk so low down that we know 
of love only in its lowest phase — and here man must 
commence to climb the ladder to true love. When 
a man truly loves a woman his mind has reached a 
lofty plane of thought — for he loves her soul and 
spirit, and not her form. 

Spirit — God — Love, are synonymous terms, and 
the spirit of an unfallen woman is God — Love. 
When this love enters a man's soul he loves all that 
are born of woman — Nay ! More ! he loves all cre- 
ated things, because love hath made them all — and 
they are all lovely when rightly viewed. 

Love, and worship love, in tntth then, void of all 
pretence, for this is spirituality. No pretence can 
pass muster within yourself. The all-seeing eye is 
there — and the book that contains your life is there 



296 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

— and the judge is there also who receives no excuses. 
Worship God in the spirit of love and in truth — i.e., 
in the conscious enlightened mind — for truth is of 
the understanding — in which the voice of love is 
heard. 

Those who turn within themselves, and pluck the 
motes out of the mind's eye become reversed or 
turned around in their understanding and very na- 
ture, and they see things in a reversed light. This 
turning has already given birth to " Christian or 
Mental Science' ' —in the practice of which the worst 
diseases are healed; with much thought and labor 
truly — as if God's spirit was far away and needed 
much coaxing to induce it to enter in and heal the 
sick. Still, a wonderful advance has been made — 
and this class of teachers are the advance guard in 
spirituality. But the time comes speedily when dis- 
eases of every name and nature will be healed by a 
touch, or a word, by the true christian and spiritu- 
ally inspired man. 

This Metaphysical School teaches that all that 
exists is spirit — that matter is only an appearance 
of spirit, and has no reality in it — that pain and dis- 
ease are simply a disordered mind, and have no exist- 
ence outside of mind — that evil has no existence — 
that all is good or God ; and much more to the same 
effect, which is just the opposite or reverse of our 
every-day life, understanding and experience. I need 
hardly say that this is true from a lofty standpoint — 
and practically true in its application to the healing 



SPIRITUALITY, 297 

of all who are receptive of spirit, and who can elevate 
the understanding. 

Who so receptive as those who have languished 
upon beds of pain and sickness till hope has wellnigh 
fled ? Who so ready to embrace the new as those 
who have exhausted the drug stores and the combined 
wisdom of the old-school scientific methods ? 

If there is any truth in Christianity, it certainly is 
in healing the sick. This power dwells in spirituality. 

He who gazes at the stars loses sight of the earth 
and what it contains. So it is with one who persist- 
ently turns his mind inward (upward). He loses sight 
of his surroundings, and his other senses are absorbed 
in feelings, and he is conscious only of sights and 
sounds born of ecstasy. So he, fixing his thought 
upon the realm of spirit, loses himself in spirit, and 
becomes charged with greatness and power altogether 
different from his nature. His mind becomes cogni- 
zant of other than mundane laws ; his memory is sus- 
pended, and he is no longer weak, because he has lost 
sight of himself — he is no longer under the law of 
disease, for he has forgotten the laws of heredity — 
he is no longer a sinner, for what he has been led to 
do in his blindness he recognizes has been done for 
his good, and he is thankful for all things. Piercing 
through the gloom and the shadow of mundane things 
he senses the great good God who orders all things 
well; and in his soul he cries out "Not my will, 
Father ! but thine be done ! " He can behold noth- 
ing but loveliness and beauty everywhere — and oft 



298 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

in his contemplation is rendered unfit for the stern 
struggle of this demoniac mammon worshipping 
world. 

" He that putteth his hand to the plow, and looketh 
back is not worthy of the kingdom of heaven/ ' "The 
kingdom of heaven is within you." Many imagine 
that because they are worn out and disgusted with 
everything of a sexual nature that they are spiritually 
minded — not so, my friends ! The spiritual love all 
things, and recognize that Infinite incomprehensible 
wisdom has made nothing in vain or unlovely. Infi- 
nite charity and mercy has found a lodgement in their 
hearts, and they condemn nothing. Man is only half 
a man without a woman to love, and the same applies 
to a woman. Woe to him or her whose love has 
turned to disgust ! Better " turn to the Lord " 
quickly. "As a man thinketh so is he." "He that 
is born of God (Love) doth not commit sin," etc., 
(John) so love must be the way out of sin — the 
strait and narrow way leading to salvation - — salvation 
from what ? From our own meanness and weakness ! 

Love being a spirit, if a man lose his love, he loses 
his spirit. Can he regain it ? Not easily. Such go 
out of life naked and deformed — to be re-incarnated 
as other beings — but he that becomes spiritual, 
becomes more and more conscious, as the love ges- 
tates within him, and in time is born of the spirit, a 
son of God. 

The spirit is that which gathers around the soul at 
death to form another body like unto the one that died. 



SPIRITUALITY. 299 



What, if you have little or no spirit from which to 
form a divine body ? You become a phantom-shape — 
lost in space, without home or a resting place — drawn 
here and there by any breath of attraction — to be- 
come anything. Vampires are partly of this nature. 
Spirituality is our only hope — the only salvation. 
Christ taught this. " Not every one that saith Lord, 
Lord ! shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that 
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." 
God's will is that we "love one another. ,, Owe no 
man anything — not even love — pay it. The mind 
filled with love becomes light with spirit — and grad- 
ually loses the feeling of mine and thine — there is 
no feeling of blame and censure of others, but it 
rather weeps great tears of pity and charity over 
failures. 

There is no turning back of the mind into memory 
of past deeds — the stirring up of the rotting filth of 
the corpse of the past — thus bringing it along with 
the spirit, living it over and over again, forcing the 
dead to become the living — or to become the atoms 
of the body to its disease and death. In this forget- 
fulness of the past is forgiveness possible. Heredity 
cannot exist save as memory holds it in the con- 
sciousness. It is a wise provision that death wipes 
out the past so far as memory is concerned. Some 
would like to know what they have been in previous 
existences ; but this knowledge is wisely withheld. 
In our now unbalanced state insanity would be the 
result of such knowledge. 



300 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

Who are fa the unhappy ? Those who brood over 
the past, and are always thinking how "it might 
have been ! " Who is it that is morose and sour but 
those who recognize no wise providence at the helm 
of this ship of life ? These are the sick ones. Spirit- 
uality gives hope and cheerfulness — even in the 
most adverse circumstances. In proportion as the 
past recedes does the future unfold, and an intuitive 
feeling of rest, security and safety takes the place of 
anxiety and uncertainty. This can only come from 
the love of some one of the opposite sex. The reason 
is very simple. In the love of another, self-love has 
expanded, and self is forgotten in the love of a 
"better half." True love is not a selfish love, and 
really the love of another of the opposite sex is not a 
love of something foreign to yourself, but it is a love 
of a larger and better self. Such lose themselves in 
the one loved. He that does good for the sake of 
attaining Nirvana — will fall far short of it. Why ? 
Because his love is only selfAovz — and not a love of 
the good — for the good is all. " He that would lose 
his life for my sake shall find it " — means more than 
many suppose. He that loses himself in love shall 
find himself immortal in that love. 

The first command is "love God." Why must 
this be first ? If the love of your neighbor is in 
reality the love of God, the first is altogether super- 
fluous, and the love of your neighbor becomes first 
and principal. The fact is the two loves are different ; 
and here lies the true definition of Spirituality. 



SPIRITUALITY. 30 1 



" God is a Spirit " — then he is not a personality, 

— but is a formless substance ; and absolutely in- 
comprehensible to us. Having no form He has no 
beauty to lure man into worship, for we all love and 
reverence beauty. Having no form, how vain the 
making of images, in the likeness of mundane things, 
to represent Him. Having no form, how childish do 
all forms and ceremonies appear in his service ! 
Having no form, he has no attributes, such as we 
have, wherewith we may clothe a mental image of 
Him, to love and reverence ! Forms are eternally 
changing — but that which is formless changes not. 
We are so constituted that we must see something — 
either in the mind or with physical eyes — in order to 
love. The mind sees attributes — the eye sees forms 

— and John saw the attribute love in his mind, 
which he called God — but Jesus saw a spirit which 
he clothed to suit the natural mind, with the attri- 
butes of Father. But " Gautama,' ' soaring above 
all human attributes and passions, stripped creation 
bare of all garments of beauty, in the conception of 
Indifference. He ignored all emotions, and all 
spirits as an ultimate — but yet the road thereto led 
through love. We of the Rosy Cross cling to Jesus 
because of his humanity. We do not wish any spirit- 
uality beyond love — for this is of active, creative use. 
To love God then is the first principle — this when 
disconnected with human attributes becomes totally 
impossible. To love something foreign to ourselves 
is repugnant to the very nature of love. Now woman 



302 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

is part and parcel of our whole nature, and to love 
her is very natural — but the love we give her is not 
such as we give our neighbor. In the latter there is 
no leaping of the heart, as a caged bird leaps for 
freedom — no exaltation to total f orgetfulness of self, 
arid all surroundings, and consequences — no discon- 
nection of self from reason and consideration — no 
blending and interchange of our most inner sensibili- 
ties — no ecstatic trembling upon the very confines 
of a blissful state we call heaven : — but on the 
contrary, in our love for our neighbor we become 
more considerate, reasonable and thoughtful of con- 
sequences ; not impulsive, but deliberate in action — 
"to do as we would be done by." In fact to "love 
your neighbor as yourself," is to become more truly 
human; while to love your wife with "your whole 
mind, might and strength," is to become completely 
absorbed in her being, and to lose yourself in a con- 
templation that speedily destroys all selfish passions 
and desires — not because she is yours do you love her f 
but because she is woman — your best nature — and 
nearer to love (or God) than you are. So out of the 
dark abysses of passion — out of the loathsome crypts 
of this fallen nature does spirituality takes its rise. 
That form of beauty which pleases your eyes, leads 
only downward or outward to the losing of your spirit 
in things foreign to yourself ; — but mental images, 
or ideal attributes of woman, change as the spirit 
becomes luminous ; hence there is no idolatry in 
this worship — nor adultery either. The Hebrew 



SPIRITUALITY. 303 



prophets always referred to the worship of false Gods 
as "whoring after other Gods." Why should they 
apply this term to worship if sex is not involved ? 
See Psalms cxxvii. 3, Deut. xxiii. 1, Num. xxxi. 18-35, 
I Sam. ii. 22, Gen. vi. 2. Whence came the Jewish 
rite of circumcision ? The ancient religions were all 
based in the love nature. Jesus inculcated the same 
ideas evidently, and made a sweeping and broad dis- 
tinction between true and false worship. " But I say 
unto you, that whoso looketh upon a woman to lust 
after her hath committed adultery already in his 
heart." The false is the visual — true worship is in 
spirit and in truth — within the mind — without lust 
— formless. The mind truly illuminated by spirit, 
has no forms in it, either of beauty or deformity ; for 
it is vacant of thought. ^ 

Consequently there can be no judgment of right 
and wrong, of good and evil, and no censure of others 
in the truly spiritual. Spirituality then takes its rise 
from a contemplation — or worship — of the formless 
principle of creation as symbolized in the feminine 
spirit of ourselves. The spiritual cannot do a wrong 
to another, because it is not aggressive nor selfish. 



304 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 



CHAPTER XXI. 



ROSICRUCLE." 



Reference has been made in the preceding pages 
to the Rosicrucians ; and the work in the main is 
claimed to be an embodiment of their principles : not 
all expressed however, by any one sect, class, clime 
or era; and it is well, in closing, to anticipate the 
query as to who, what and where are the Rosicru- 
cians, that will naturally arise in the minds of most 
people, because there is so little known of them. 

The Rosicrucians may more properly be termed a 
fraternity than an order ; though many attempts have 
been made in modern times to materialize it as an 
order, some of which are a success, though of neces- 
sity veiled in profound secrecy. The Rosicrucians 
are numerous — of all nationalities and all climes ; 
but they are scattered. They meet occasionally — 
not drawn together by " press notices " — or the 
ringing of bells, but by the moving and drawing of 
the spirit — as "of one accord/ ' 

They were known in history among the other 
appellations as the Essenes, the Illuminati, etc., 
but since Christian Rosencrutz's time, as the 
Rosicrucians. It was evidently once the universal 



«rosicrucijE." 305 



religion — long ere written history began ; for evi- 
dences of " FiRE-worship " are scattered over all the 
earth in the form of Rosicrucian symbols. 

The curious reader is referred to Hargrave Jen- / 
nings' great work, entitled "The Rosicrucians," 
published in England. There was a time when all 
learned men believed in magic (another term for 
magnetism), and those who studied the occult forces 
of nature, and practiced the powers derived therefrom, 
were styled priests, and later, magicians ; but after 
the destruction of the Magi of Persia, and during the 
rise of Catholicism, magic became associated with 
the idea of diabolism, and was styled "Black Art," 
and all who practiced it were shunned, and sometimes 
hunted to death. 

Wherever God is found among men you will find 
a spirit of investigation into the mysteries of being, 
and a corresponding love of freedom ; hence, the true 
man is free to take intellectual flights — aye, even to 
God's throne, and there question him face to face. 
There is nothing too sacred or secret for him to 
question for the truth. 

Recognizing the possibility of the great good God, 
and the impossibility of the Devil, they laughed in 
secret (for they dared not even smile publicly), at 
priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, and treasured 
the ancient lore in cipher, worshipping the undying, 
unquenchable fire, while they dwelt in caves, or fled 
before the terrors of the Inquisition. This revived 
the ancient Pagan secret societies and mysteries. 



306 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS, 

To learn and know something more than ordinary 
is dangerous when such knowledge is unpopular, or 
at least, when the masses are ruled by ignorance and 
superstition. It was at the cost of life to be known 
as a member of such secret orders — hence arose the 
proverbial secrecy of the brethren of the Rosy 
Cross. Time was when no man would admit that 
he belonged to that mystic fraternity ; furthermore, 
they shrouded themselves in a cloud of mysteries — 
not, perhaps, with a view of mystifying others so 
much as from the idea that all power is a mystery, 
and that " God's ways are mysterious and past find- 
ing out/' and they wished to be God-like. Further- 
more, Rosicrucians have learned from past experience, 
that popularity is a dangerous thing ; upon this rock 
all religious systems have foundered. The Magi of 
Egypt, Arabia, Persia and Assyria, in ancient times 
were the ruling class — they were the priesthood and 
ruled the crowned heads, and had charge of the edu- 
cation of such as were eligible thereto. They recog- 
nized that the equality of man was based in his eleva- 
tion ; and that undeveloped man must of necessity be 
ruled. To such as are not capable of self-govern- 
ment, intellectual education is an evil. They knew as 
we know to-day that the only true education is of the 
heart. To attain this end they established religious 
systems, and the common people were taught as 
children are taught — with stories or fables ; while 
the priests kept for their own use ideas altogether 
different. Their ideas expressed as allegories entered 



"ROSICRUCI&r 307 



into — and became the foundation of quite all — the 
religious systems of the civilized world. From the 
ancients came all the symbolism of the world. It is 
woven into art, customs, literature and science, as 
well as religious systems. Our Bible is full of Rosi- 
crucian lore — not however known under that name 
at that, or any other time. For Rosicruciae has little 
respect for names. While at all times leading the 
world, it assumes names to suit circumstances, and 
of itself is hidden and not known. Why? Because 
it is a spiritual organization (if it can be called such) 
and works wholly in spirit. Its methods are not the 
world's methods. We worship fire ; but this fire is 
not material fire. Says one of the Bible Prophets — 
" Our God is a consuming fire/' All thrones and 
crowns grow out of popularity. And now the masses 
have turned upon them, and their days are numbered. 
Where are the ancient Magi ? Gone with the 
grandeur of the countries wherein they flourished ! 
The very circumstances they created overwhelmed 
them and they have sunk to rise no more. The fate 
of all nations and religions is the same — still the 
Rosy Cross principles remain and keep along with 
the people ; unseen but not unfelt. 

Another reason for secrecy is this. The most 
potent forces of nature are silent and secret. They 
manifest themselves openly at times, but are mainly 
hidden. Behold the earthquake and the cyclone ! 
Think you there is no power in silence ? 

Rosicruciae is intensely and transcendentally spirit- 



j 



308 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

ual — hence, it has nothing in common with materialism, 
except intellectually, and even then the conclusions of 
materialism are all reversed. It has no affinity with 
this mammon- worshipping age — hence, it has no 
golden basis or " insurance plan " to lure men into a 
semblance of brotherly love and fellowship. Unob- 
trusive, unpretending men, they pass mainly unno- 
ticed through life ; they look with pity upon a world 
of gold- and treasure-gatherers as upon children heap- 
ing dirt in the streets. No wonder such men are not 
understood ; they are in the world, but they feel they 
are not of it, and they wish to get done with it as 
quietly as possible. Knowing they can leave it only 
by doing good, they are always secretly doing all 
within their power. Indeed, they are conscious of 
having been sent here for that purpose — to help the 
world in its efforts to humanize the race. 

The Alchemists of the middle ages believed in the 
" Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Stone/' 
and diligently sought for them. To drink of the 
former was eternal youth and life ; the latter was 
sought as a universal solvent, in the use of which the 
baser metals were changed or transmuted into pure, 
virgin gold. No wonder these men were called in- 
sane ; but, nevertheless, they gave the world the 
principles of chemistry and medicine. 

Think you such men were fools ? Nay ! but they 
had an idea which the masses could not comprehend, 
and they masked it in material that they could grasp. 
No philosopher ever supposed for a moment that 



" rosicrucijE? 309 



matter in any form could confer immortality upon 

any other form whatever, for there is no changeless 

f substance in existence. That there is a power in the 

j human soul capable of eternally renewing youth and 

I beauty is a cardinal doctrine of the Rosy Cross. 

As to the transmutation of metals, it is not only 
possible, but true. The idea is of kin to the first ; 
(they constitute "the Secret " of the order ;) and has 
already been explained as transmutation of spirits 
into forms of matter ; such as cloth, flowers, bread, 
wine, or any metal. The Rosicrucian concealed the 
real idea of transmutation under the title of transmu- 
tation of metals or the changing of one form into 
another. Many alchemists tried to reduce the spirit- 
ual gift of creation into a material science ; and it is 
said some few succeeded so far as they were individ- 
ually concerned ; but to the true Rosicrucian the 
latter is of no value whatever, further than as used 
in the middle ages as an excuse to stop too close 
espionage, and to compel not only the respect of 
common people, but the patronage and protection of 
those in authority ; for the practice of alchemy, or 
dealing even with his "Satanic Majesty'' for the pur- 
pose of enriching the earth with gold, would be 
deemed a laudable avocation. They, at least, found 
protection in it, although prizing it not — for the 
true adept has all he needs of all things without re- 
sorting to any such resource, for he needs but little. 

There is a providence for every man and woman 
who stands high enough in the scale of being to be 



/ 



J 



3IO THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

conscious of it, and to be its recipients. The ravens 
fed the prophet Elijah in the olden time. 

Not every man can be an adept in anything, for 
this capability is born in a man as genius is. Neither 
is it possible for every man to be a Rosicrucian, no 
more than education can impart sense ; or no more 
than a child born blind could be made a master artist 
by learning the terms used to designate the philos- 
ophy of light and shade and blending of colors. 
There must be an innate feeling of rapture at the 
bare idea of mystery ; a hunger and thirst for the 
unknown, and a conscious and abiding belief in one's 
own immortality. 

Such are initiated with profit to themselves and 
mankind ; for in Rosicrucia's Temple they eat and 
are filled, and drink to thirst no more. Here they 
find teachers and brothers. We are the children of 
" the Shadow/' and we love it, though oft we may 
not see the way clearly through tear-dimmed eyes, 
yet we cry out in our anguish, " Not my will, Father, 
but thine be done ! " And then " the Shadow " 
reveals its mystery and departs, leaving the heart 
chastened and lightened with increased purity and 
peace. 

We are cast down in order that we may go higher. 
Thus, alternately cast down and exalted, we are pre- 
pared to meet all the changes of this mundane life. 
No stoic, agnostic, nor egotist can be a Rosicrucian : 
it requires feeling, and that intensified. Without this, 
no initiation could possibly impart that baptism: of the 



" rosicruciae:"' 3 1 1 



spirit which gives birth to new or dormant energies ; 
or awaken soul germs of a higher and better life, 
where will reigns over all, and matter becomes trans- 
mutable. 

s* Who are Rosicrucians ? I may not answer this 
question! " By their fruits shall ye know them." 
No better test, or one more unerring or unmistakable, 
could be given than that given by our Master, " the 
man of Sorrows " whom they hanged on a cross 
long ago. Let others speak for themselves ! There 
is nothing in Rosicruciae to be ashamed of, and I 
glory in being one, though an humble builder of the 
Temple in these degenerate times. And if I speak 
of myself in this connection it is because I am free 
to do so — while I may not mention others. It has 
been my lot to be a teacher most of my life. I write 
and speak to aid others, not for pay in coin, or in 
popularity. Unfortunately, however, some fail to 
grasp ideas in their fullness, and carried away by 
enthusiasm, rush into occult studies and practices 
expecting immediate results. This is wrong. There 
must be a certain growth and ripening ere fruits can 
be expected. Some seem to think, that if they can 
find a lodge of Rosicruciae and be initiated that they 
will come out with a diploma, and become at once a 
full-fledged Rosicrucian. Initiation is something 
more than taking an oath and going through certain 
forms and ceremonies — no matter how imposing or 
awe inspiring. It is something more than a course 
of lectures and study of authorities. It is something 



312 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

deeper and higher than intellectual culture. // is the 
knowing of truth. To know is something higher than 
learning — it involves mind, soul and body. Ah, 
what a work is this ! A life is far too short for some 
to attain the goal of knowledge. It is said that 
Pythagoras spent twenty-two years among the mys- 
tics of Egypt, in his initiation. Mind, however deep 
and subtle, cannot bear immortal fruit. It takes the 
entire man — soul, mind and body ! The Rosicru- 
cians think very little of the ways of the world — its 
pride, arrogance and dignity — he is simple, for he 
finds truth is very simple. The fruits of truth are 
free from pretence. But unfortunately there are 
many pretenders, and some knowing ones assert that 
"whoever makes claim to being a Rosicrucian is a 
pretender and a fraud" and that no true initiate ever 
annoimces himself as such. I frankly admit that 
such used to be the case — in " the olden time " — 
when men were afraid of the Inquisition. 

Behold Cagliostro miserably perishing in a Catho- 
lic dungeon in Rome, also the tortures inflicted upon 
Galileo for daring to think and express his thought. 
Such have been the facts. It has also been a fact 
that women were not admitted to membership in the 
Rosy Cross or other secret societies, and were even 
denied a voice in the Christian Church, — but the 
world has outgrown such things. 

The Rosy Cross is not a fossil, nor is it ever in 
the rear of progress. It has no creeds and issues no 
mandates. If the law of Silence is enjoined, it is 



" rosicrucijE." 313 



upon such as are not fully initiated, — or whose 
Voice is not fully formed. Women are now admitted 
upon equal terms with men. 

The true initiate is free in all essentials, — free to 
think, to be and to express himself, for himself — 
always for the good of others and in the cause of 
progress, — but " by their fruits ye shall know them." 

But fruits are not always confined to acts. They 
are visible to the acute sense, even in the embryo — 
in the thought and in the spirit, as fruit may be 
known in a tree by its buds. I meet many Rosicru- 
cians, and although total strangers, we know each 
other at sight. The true artist has a feeling which 
transcends his thought in viewing works of art. It 
is his best and safest guide to a just and true esti- 
mate of what he beholds. 

God fashions all things and paints them in all 
colors possible. There is nothing in existence that 
is not of kin to intelligence. They are all suggestive 
of thought — nay ! they are thoughts materialized. 
And He has fashioned men with thought-reservoirs, 
as a flower, for receiving the pollen and the dew ; and 
the Rosicrucian may be known by the stamp that 
God has put upon him, whether he is conscious of it 
or not. 

^ Pre-exist ence is a cardinal principle of the Rosy 
Cross, and men who have existed on this earth pre- 
vious to this existence, as men, have forms, expression 
and motion more suggestive of peace, rest and har- 
mony than those who have only just commenced life 



314 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

on this planet. The former have more receptiveness, 
prescience, and intuition ; for they have not wholly 
forgotten the lessons learned in other bodies ; neither 
have they entirely forgotten the friends and compan- 
ions of that other life ; and when they meet they feel a 
mutual attraction and friendship for each other — 
a kindred feeling, more real than that of the blood. 

During my studies of nature, and my travels as a 
lecturer and practitioner of phrenology and kindred sci- 
ences, I have met with many men, and many strange — 
and, I might say, weird — experiences. I have looked 
into eyes of all shades of color that contained nothing, 
but which reflected all the phenomena of the outer 
world. Other eyes I have met that looked deep — as 
into a world of causation, without limit — as looking 
into an eternal past, and out of which rise up shad- 
ows, not dark or many colored, but fiery, as it were, 
or of a burning, melting tenderness. Such shadows 
are portents of power. Of such are Rosicrucians. 
Many such have I taught the true principles of human 
life and action, and sent them on their way rejoicing. 
Many a false step have I arrested, and infused hope 
into the minds of the desperate — aye ! and turned 
the would-be suicide into the ways of love, labor and 
usefulness. The evil is always too apparent in the 
young : the good is mainly hidden. To find the truly 
good in the soul, and display it to the consciousness, 
is to make it loved and followed as a beacon of life. 
The will needs an incentive, high and noble, in order 
to its growth ; and no matter how lofty one's own 



" ROSICRUCI^E." 315 



ideal of himself and his powers may be, to find them 
recognized by another, and that other a stranger, is 
like doubling the powers to its attainment. Alas ! 
how many of mature years are in doubt and condem- 
nation of themselves, because they are not, and never 
have been, understood, i.e. y the best part of themselves. 
We long to have, the good of ourselves understood, 
and not the evil. And herein, in the knowing the good 
in ourselves lies the whole secret of life, health and 
happiness, both here and hereafter. This idea is the 
basic floor of " Mental Science healing/' and as I said 
— I reiterate — this is the leading school, this day, in 
philosophy — in which the religion of Christ becomes 
real and practical. We are slowly turning back to the 
time when man had more faith in the Gods than in 
physical substances, and diseases were prevented and 
cured by the use of talismans, incantations, invoca- 
tions, words, thoughts, spells, charms, etc., all of 
which were mere forms of expression for that spiritual 
power of which I have spoken, having an effect upon 
the mind primarily, and secondarily upon the body. 
But man's spiritual nature has gradually become more 
and more dense, or physical, arid instead of carrying 
or wearing talismans, charms, etc., as a protection or 
cure, people now invoke the doctors instead of the 
gods, and swallow their amulets whole at a gulp ; and 
yet people die now as then, or as when Moses set up 
the brazen serpent in the wilderness. 
_ Gautama said that the most fatal diseases enter 
through the eye ; and we of the Rosy Cross know 



316 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

this is true in a sense ; for through the eye the imagi- 
nation (in most men) is fed, and the passions may be 
aroused to the commission of acts unhallowed and 
unnatural. By reason of which the soul is tainted 
with moral poison, which in the blood produces vene- 
real infections, hereditary and deadly — the foundation 
of all known diseases. 

If disease enters ever, or in any form whatever, 
through the eye, it cannot be removed by agents 
which act upon the physical or chemical organization 
only, for the reason, it being of a spiritual or psychical 
origin, it enters directly into and deranges the harmo- 
nious action of the mind, which holds supreme control 
over the physical. To cure these phases of disease 
the remedies applied must be of a character that will 
influence directly the subtle, spiritual forces of the 
individual, and through them produce vital and chemi- 
cal changes in the physical structure. 

But disease does not enter in any manner from 
without. That which is external simply wakens up 
that which is already in us. Disease is not a thing — 
it is simply a depolarizing of the self. That sights 
and sounds lure the imagination into activity, I claim, 
and in this faculty of the mind, depolarization of the 
spirits action takes place, which causes a sudden con- 
densation of spirit in some parts of the system, to the 
damage of other parts left destitute. Thus the system 
is all thrown out of harmony, because the normal ac- 
tion of the spirit is disturbed. 

Now, belief being the fundamental principle of 



« rosicrucije? 317 



\ 



power — and man being more physical than mental, 
his belief is more readily aroused and sustained by 
physical substances than by ideas — hence the Magi 
used charms, amulets, and talismans, to inspire the 
belief of the ignorant and material. Furthermore : 
who can doubt for a moment that drugs, metals, vege- 
table substances, etc., have a peculiar affinity for cer- 
tain spirits or an antipathy for others ? Who knows 
why Dr. Hotchkiss had his room hung round and 
round with rags of all shades of color except blue ? 
Were these things talismans calling and binding mag- 
netic spirits to himself, thus strengthening him in the 
cure of diseases, and in the retaining of his youthful 
vigor and prolonging his life ? Why did he fall into 
a towering rage, and lose his magnetic power, if one 
came dressed in blue into his room ? Why did he fill 
his cellar with such a dense smoke — so thick that 
no one but himself could endure it upon certain occa- 
sions ? Don't tell me there is no truth in magic, for 
I know better. Still I care not who doubts it. The 
higher magic set forth in these pages is for the use 
of a higher order of mankind than this world is much 
acquainted with. Sakyi Mouni knew of these powers 
and attained thereto. The sick either recovered or 
died immediately, in a certain radius on either side of 
the road along which he passed. And that without 
evena thought of his. When scholars came to con- 
verse with him, those who received his word with joy, 
became endowed with power ; but the skeptical, and 
self-sufficient, who argued with him and disputed, 



318 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

swelled up with their own importance and burst asun- 
der, dying in his presence. So says the sacred Bible 
of the Buddhists. Apollonius of Tyana was another 
who possessed magic power. He lived at the time 
of Jesus, and according to heathen history performed 
as many miraculous cures as Jesus did. He lived 
mainly in the desert — preached and healed the sick 
by a word or a touch, and was clairvoyant. Of Christ 
I have already said enough. He was simply God in- 
carnate. He gave us the purest doctrines of a true 
life, and taught the superiority of man over the realm 
of disease and death — a true immortality on earth/ 
He not only taught it by precept, but he lived it ; and 
died to illustrate and prove what he had taught, viz., 
the power to render matter imperishable. 

Gautama, Apollonius, Plato, Pythagoras, and 
a host of others, taught pre-existence and a future life, 
but none but Jesus taught and demonstrated immor- 
tality in the flesh. He was the only begotten son of 
God, or Love — not that there are not other sons of 
\God, but he is the only one begotten of a woman. 
Buddha says that a man strong spiritually, can im- 
pregnate a very sensitive and pure woman by the 
manipulation of his hand over the umbilicus. This, 
by the greatest sage and philosopher of any time, 
must have weight with every true thinking man ; es- 
pecially when corroborated by modern developments. 
If his assertion be true, and one in the form can by 
magnetic touch produce pregnancy without copulation, 
how much less wonderful the idea contained in the 



« rosicrucim." 319 

New Testament, of "the immaculate conception," 
becomes ! An angel, by his presence, without even 
contact — by a word spoken, quickens the procreative 
powers of a virgin ! An idea — no matter how sug- 
gestive, is all that is required. These bodies are mere 
receptacles of spirit ; and well it is for us, when the 
spirit flowing into us is divine, instead of devilish. 
Modern materializations ; the overflowing of hospitals 
with the insane ; the obsessions that stalk the streets 
of the world unseen, and seen, prove the above to be 
true. Ideas are all that can do us good, or be of any 
harm spiritually; for they enter in, being conceived, 
gestate and personify themselves within us. In this 
domain the procreative functions are involved ; and 
ideas of love become paramount. 

Human love is a magnetic effect, but the why and 
the wherefore have never yet been satisfactorily ex- 
plained. But it is simple enough to one of com- 
prehension. All things are male and female, and 
the sex that distinguishes the individual is the active, 
or visible expression — while the negative or invisible 
half is mainly latent — or manifests itself ideally. 
Thus every one of any sensibility has an ideal of one 
of the opposite sex that they imagine suits them ; 
and when they see one who corresponds thereto, they 
are attracted. We love only that which corresponds 
to some invisible and unknown being within our- 
selves. And they in whom this Ideal is well defined, 
and strong, seldom or never love a second time. 
Some people are double — u e. f under some circum- 



320 THE TEMPLE OF THE ROSY CROSS. 

stances the ideal goes forth clothed in flesh exactly 
like the person — who is partly or wholly uncon- 
scious at the time. Magnetism quickens and accel- 
erates the development of this counterpart. This 
explains why some people are more susceptible to 
magnetism than others — and explains to a certain 
extent trance mediumship — and the resemblance 
that has been noticed sometimes between a medium 
and a materialized form. In marriage the parties too 
often awaken to the realization that there is little or 
no correspondence between the wedded parties and 
their ideal — this makes them unhappy and often 
checks the growth of the ideal, or in some cases 
drives it totally out of recognition. They cease to 
magnetize each other — hence they cease to love. 
This is prostitution, in which there is no ideal, and no 
worship of the one true and only God. This ideal in 
some rare cases comes to life in the individual, i.e. f 
comes so close to the consciousness of the individual 
as to be heard to speak in plain language within the 
person — of course unheard by outsiders. Not only 
this — but the time comes speedily when from many 
the counterpart shall come forth an objective being, 
as Eve came forth from the side of Adam. Recol- 
lect, Adam was in a deep sleep when the rib was 
extracted. In other words he was an extraordinary 
materializing medium — and Mary, the mother of 
Jesus, was another, more remarkable still. 

I am not without evidence of these things, in actual 
existence, even now } in this degenerate and unbeliev- 



" ROSICRUCIjE." 321 

ing age. If marriage was as it should be, and will be y 

we should have angels walking this earth. We 

\ believe in angels ! Then, cultivate your ideal love. 

Love only one of the opposite sex, and then let your 

soul, mind and body rest. Keep before your mind's 

/ eye the radiant image that crossed your path, and 

] lured you to marriage, in life's young dream ! — And 

/ let no changes, nor wrinkles, nor gray hairs, glide 

/ between your youthful counterpart and you, on life's 

( rough voyage. So may you remain young, and full 

\pi love and joy. 

We do not have to depend upon churches and 
lodges for initiation into the grandest mysteries of 
God ; for the heavens are open — and in the spaces 
above are countless multitudes, that with thought, 
and act, are baptizing earth with all you are capable 
of receiving. Then arise in your thought and meet 
them. We, of the Rosy Cross, believe in "the 
double," in dreams and visions. We hold that the 
soul goes out of the body, sometimes in sleep or 
trance, or in very rare cases, by an effort of the will. 
That when out it is enveloped by the spirit, of which 
it sometimes forms an exact counterpart of the body 
it has left, and journeys to other worlds, or other parts 
of this one ; mingles and holds converse with other 
beings when it is enlightened in many ways — and 
often the future is shown to it in symbols. But these 
things are mainly lost when the soul resumes its body, 
or remembered vaguely as dreams. Sometimes some 
little thing will recall something learned in this man- 



322 THE TEMPLE OE THE ROSY CROSS. 

ner, and we are astonished at what we suppose are our 
own thoughts. Many persons are instructed in this 
manner. One such experience has left its stamp 
upon me. At the risk of being called garrulous I 
will relate it. 

Many years ago I had become somewhat soured at 
the rough treatment I had received from the patterns 
of religion and morality, and I determined to let the 
dead world bury its dead, or in other words, I did not 
think I " amounted to anything, anyway," and that I 
would not teach any more. So I quietly went about 
making daily bread for those dependent upon me. 
But one night in a deep sleep I was in an immense 
amphitheatre. I stood in the little space in the 
centre, where were a few chairs with people seated in 
them, from this space seats ascended in circles around 
me, tier above tier, high up towards the dome-like 
ceiling. These seats were literally crowded with 
people. I was speaking to them, and they were very 
attentive, though I have no idea of the subject I was 
speaking upon, but I know I was very earnest and 
wished the audience to believe something — and I 
recollect saying, " Now all you want to convince you 
of this truth is the evidence ! " As I said this a 
shock and cold wave poured over me and I raised my 
hands above my head and shouted, "Behold the 
evidence ! " And as I held my hands aloft out- 
stretched, there came " the stigmata " in the palms 
thereof, out of which blood oozed slowly and dropped 
on the floor. The audience sat fixed and spellbound 



' ROSICRUCIjE." 121 



for a few moments, then broke forth such shrieks, 
groans, and cries of " Mercy ! Mercy ! Oh God, 
have mercy on us ! " Some fell down, others rose 
up — and such a scene ! I cannot describe it. But 
I stood there a minute, then said, " Let us thank God 
for this evidence ! " and dropped on my knees, and 
the whole audience prostrated themselves with me. 
This was an experience — it was no dream. I was at 
a loss for the meaning of it. But then came a series 
of events, commonplace and trifling of themselves, 
which have assumed great magnitude in my life, 
forcing me from seclusion and silence. It remains to 
be seen whether I have the audience or not — or 
whether I give the evidence or not. Blessed are they 
who believe from beholding " The Stigmata ! " but 
thrice blessed is he who believes from feeling it in 
his own person. 
For you, reader 

Lovingly written, 

F. B. DOWD. 

Note. — All inquiries from readers interested in the Order of 
the Rosy Cross, and who are sincerely desirous of further infor- 
mation in regard to its aims and objects, or who desire to apply 
for membership in the Order, will receive the attention of the 
Fraternity, if their communications be placed in an envelope ad- 
dressed to the undersigned, and enclosed within another envelope 
addressed to the publishers. 

"Eulis" A 
Door of the Temple. 



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